Bill Brand’s Masstransiscope
Permanent CollectionCourt Tree Collective proudly presents Bill Brand's limited edition Masstransiscope print portfolio. For the first time ever all 57 prints will be exhibited, corresponding to the 228 animated “frames” of the artwork in the subway, an iconic part of NYC’s public art history.
Bill Brand installed Masstransiscope in the unused Myrtle Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, New York in September 1980 and has been seen by millions of commuters for over forty years. Masstransiscope turns the subway into a movie machine, presenting a colorful, animated "moving picture" to commuters as the train moves through the tunnel. The images are viewed through a series of vertical slits set into a specially constructed housing built on the principle of the Zoetrope, a 19th century optical toy. Masstransiscope is part of the permanent collection of MTA Arts and Design.
With Bill Brand’s fine art prints Masstransiscope’s images can be enjoyed above ground for their formal and painterly qualities. The prints are carefully executed to evoke the work’s brilliant reflective quality as seen in motion from the train as well as its physical and textural quality when observed as a traditional static image.
