Arts for Transit and Urban Design

50th Street

Liliana Porter

Alice: The Way Out, 1994

Glass mosaic on platform walls

In this series of mosaic panels, titled Alice: The Way Out, Liliana Porter's silhouetted figures portray characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The simple and engaging quality of the works echo the stagecraft found in the Broadway theaters nearby. The artist evokes the idea of the theatrical and playfully connects it with the experience of being underground, as was Alice during her adventures. Commenting on what is below the surface, Porter shows Alice pulling back a curtain to reveal the drama. Porter prefers to let the viewer's imagination fill in the details of her shadowy figures, playing on our varying views of reality while entertaining her captive audience.