New York artist Tattfoo Tan, below, unveiled Thursday his public art project entitled NMS - Nature Matching System art project at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. (Photos: Megan Stride, above; RJ Mickelson, below)
Fruits and veggies are good for you, and community organizers are hoping they’ll be good for Eighth Avenue, too.
An enormous, produce-inspired, grid of color now covers the windows of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The art work was unveiled Thursday as part of an effort by the Times Square Alliance and the Fashion Center Business Improvement District to enliven this stretch of streetscape.
The project, which is called “Get Your Daily Dose of Color” and runs along Eighth Avenue. and wraps around 42nd Street, is the first of a series of public art projects in the area.
“This is really about the revitalization of Eighth Avenue and rethinking what it could be,” said Barbara Randall, executive director of the district improvement group. “We wanted to mentally and emotionally give pedestrians in the area a lift.”
Malaysian artist Tattfoo Tan designed the artwork by using Photoshop to match the exact colors of the food to a printed square for the window in what he calls the “Nature Matching System.”
Interested passerby can match up the number on each square to a legend on the Eighth Avenue side to learn which fruit or vegetable inspired the color.
“It catches people’s attention, and then when they go the legend, they can learn more,” Tan, 34, said. “There’s more than meets the eye.”
Pedestrians are already paying attention.
“I like it. It makes me hungry for fruit,” said Angelia Rorison, 26, after feasting her eyes upon the windows Thursday. “I want a papaya right now!”
The project will be on display for the next several months.
-- Megan Stride
