Project by: Peter Mamaev (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: James French
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Peter Heinz

My project was strongly inspired by Frank Portella’s Weird Literature class that I took in the previous trimester, in particular, a story we read called “The Festival,” a scene from which involved an inconspicuous town shedding their human masks and revealing the Eldritch abominations underneath. H. P. Lovecraft’s vivid descriptions of the twisted monstrosities served to inspire me to add a personal twist on them after. I realized that a lot of the art I made over the past year or so has had a very distinct “Russian” vibe to it, so I wanted to create a piece that would really celebrate instead the place I have called my home for the past eight years – New York City. Particularly, the grimy, spastic melting pot version of New York City that I have been taught in American History class the year prior.

In order to prepare for the project, I have spent the past few days gazing around whatever subway trains I was riding (and receiving a lot of dirty in the process), taking mental notes of what sorts of people I would see around me, seeing what kind of people left the biggest imprint on my memory. It’s kind of interesting to see how the people look and dress differently based on what neighborhood your train passes through (and thankfully my line is practically an entire socioeconomic course in two hours). This is, of course, pure character fuel. Once I felt that I’ve seen enough faces (and exercised all my excess time in the process), I started planning out the layout. The picture is actually focused around a slight vanishing point (that being the rear of the train in question), with as many diverse characters packed in as possible (as with any real train wagon).

Most people in the photo represent some sort of repeating archetype that I noticed on the train – a well-dressed yuppie that wouldn’t be out of place in American Psycho, a mother with a tight bun and a striped shirt (It’s always the striped shirt) sitting next to her baby in a carriage, an elderly Hasidic Jew staring into the space from behind his round glasses, a working-class fellow with a large mustache and a giant baseball cap that overshadows most of their face. Every single one is actually based off of a distinct commuter I find myself often taking the train with, and I only regret not being able to include more of these familiar faces. After drawing these people in a fairly normal fashion with my pencil, I proceeded to add a Lovecraftian spin on the matter – turning one guy’s head into a writhing mass of tentacles; drawing a gigantic fleshy worm-like monstrosity sniping out of the yuppie’s mouth; even a gigantic arachnid-like creature on the ceiling of the wagon. The thing is, I wanted to convey the message that this was business as usual. The picture wouldn’t involve any “normal” citizens trying to flee, fight, or even recognize the existence of the Eldritch abominations around them. This wasn’t an action scene, nor was this a horror scene. Nay, this was business as usual in New York City, at least this particular spin of New York City. I wanted to intentionally leave it ambiguous whether the “normal” people in the picture were deliberately ignoring the blatant freakishness going on around them or if this was really a totally normal sight in this New York.

For my materials, I started out with pencil, and worked from there via sharpie, micron and ink pens (to add weight, shadow, and texture). These are all tools I am quite comfortable with, and James, my mentor, has in the past praised me for my elaborate use of lines. I tried to include as many different patterns as I could, so that each shadow and each shade of grey is distinct, as to prevent it all from drowning in just a sea of darkness. During my final few days, I decided to delve a little into the realm of experimentation, utilizing ink wash, a medium that I have very little proficiency in to paint the subway walls. The idea was to not only add an extra sense of value but to give off this sense of grime and grit that one could find in a pre-1990s subway. The grime on the walls, the cracked advertisements, the derelict-looking subway cart and of course its varyingly ghastly inhabitants all eventually served to add to this grit.

In retrospective, I think the more I worked on this project, the more of a connection I developed with it. What started out as yet another ordinary piece of extra work eventually became something special to me. While I didn’t set out with a particular message (it was more of a thematic homage and an excuse to experiment with some materials), I think eventually I began to come around to the idea of using this extraterrestrial weirdness to portray the diversity of New York City.

As an immigrant to America, I must admit there are still plenty of things me (and many others like me) find odd about the country – be it the people, the culture, the lifestyle. The American mindset is very unique, and quite jarringly different from that of, say, Russia. To that same end, Big Apple arguably houses some of the most strange and diverse people on the planet. There are many different groups, organizations, neighborhoods, cultures, religions and even factions living in the city, and all are forced to interact on the subway. A Wall Street magnate can sit next to a homeless war veteran, a twenty-year-old Bulgarian biology student can sit next to a Texan rock musician and not even know it. Because of this diversity, I think after enough exposure anybody from any walk of life starts to see the people around them as alien.

Why is that man wearing a cowboy hat? Why is that woman humming something to herself in some foreign language? Who wears a full 1980s Adidas tracksuit in the middle of the Financial District? You could say that these monsters, these clearly otherworldly abominations that belong in a horror novel or a b-movie, in fact, represent these skewed comprehensions these people have of each other. I’ve seen judgment be passed on the subway. I’ve given and gotten a lot of confused glances after seeing some or another peculiar fellow. I think that while this wasn’t necessarily the main sendoff, I have still inadvertently developed an interesting message about class division, the average New Yorker’s comprehension of normality and how that comprehension may get thrown out of the left field pretty much every day when they take a ride with another woefully ignorant conglomerate of cosmic abominations and similar oddballs.

================================================================

PROJECT PROPOSAL:

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

I am doing a series of landscape portraits with a supernatural element inserted.

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

The idea for this course was taken from Weird Lit, a LREI elective course.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

I believe once I have at least 3 successful pieces I am proud of I will consider the bare minimum quota of the project satisfied.

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

I plan to work at a designated time on the project on weekends, more so if at any point over the week I have any more free time.

When do you plan on meeting?
Friday afternoons perhaps?