46th Street subway station turned into Joe Biden tribute
Photo by Adrian Wilson / @plannedalism
Street artist Adrian Wilson decided to mark the momentousness of yesterday with a special NYC-themed tribute to our new President. At the 46th Street subway station in Astoria, he used stickers to change the “46th St” mosaic to read “46th Joe” with a change to the directional below to read “45th Out.” In his Instagram post, Wilson wrote, “Total cost including 4 train rides, $12. Anyone could have done it. But I had to do it. For Joe.”
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Wilson notes that he had to work quickly to get the piece in place. As he explains:
Took an hour to go there to size it up, using that always handy measuring tape – a dollar bill.
3 hours to paint. Final piece was double checked for size by hanging in my bathroom then putting it over the original in photoshop. I cut it down to fit once I was in the station.
The artist has been busy elsewhere in the city this week, too. At the entrance to the 46th Street station, next to the letters M and R for the train lines, he added “Biden.” And in Soho, he changed a “Thompson St” street sign to read “Trumpgone St” with the adjoining “One Way” sign now reading “Gone Away.”
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In the past, Wilson has paid tribute to other icons on the subway, including Aretha Franklin (adding “Respect” under the Franklin Street mosaics when the singer passed away), Prince (adding “RIP” over the “ST” in “Prince ST”), and Ruth Bader Ginsberg (changing “50th ST” to “RUth ST”).
It wasn’t until this past October, when his RBG tribute went viral, that Wilson revealed his identity. In an interview with ABC7, the 56-year-old professional photographer explained, “Vandalism isn’t necessarily destroying things, it can be upsetting things, it can just be a little thorn in the side, it could be a funny joke.” He never uses materializes that will permanently damage surfaces and calls his technique “plannedalism,” which is his Instagram handle.
In a statement to Gothamist yesterday, Wilson said: “I have done so many anti-Trump pieces in the last 5 years, I had to do some final ones. He lost, democracy won. Gave him a goodbye from the city he is abandoning.”
