Subway Sea Serpent

Subway Sea Serpent. Wood, plaster-resin, foam, paint, plexiglass, solar panel, LEDs, reflectors. 6’ x 4’ x 50’. Currently on view at Beach 60th St and Rockaway Beach Blvd, Arverne, Queens, under the Beach 60th St. Station.

The multi-part, undulating subway train looks as if it’s jumped off the elevated tracks at the Beach 60th A Train station and dived underground to make its way towards the beach. Segments of the cars break above the grass as if the train were a sea serpent swimming in the water, or an earthworm moving through the soil. It sprawls over a few hundred feet of formerly overgrown and unutilized land beside the elevated train tracks.

The piece features a built-in solar panel and battery which powers the glowing blue “A” and headlights at night. The A train is an integral part of the Rockaways, and waiting on the platform for that glowing blue “A” is a unifying experience of residents of all ages, races and backgrounds.

Subway Sea Serpent sits on a parcel of DOT land adjacent to the Beach 60th Street Station that had previously been overgrown and underutilized. RISE, the Rockaway Initiative for Sustainability & Equity, launched a community initiative to revitalize this land, and in addition to public art it also hosts community events, musical performances and “drive-thru” farm share pickup for low- and middle-income residents.

Subway Sea Serpent at RISE is part of the “Art Under the Elevated” Initiative, funded by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Development Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts ArtWorks Fund, and the Radical Imagination for Racial Justice Initiative sponsored by Hester Street and the Surdna Foundation.

Opened October 7, 2023. A collaboration with Zaq Landsberg.