Hospitals are the new creepy locations, given the Ebola scare –and as of this last week, the long-ago abandoned 112 year-old hospital on New York’s Ellis Island has a new photographic installation by French street artist JR. Enlarged vintage photographs were pasted on walls, windows and other corners of the derelict Immigrant Hospital. It’s now open to the public for the first time in 60 years and two-dozen site-specific works pay homage to over 1 million immigrants who spent time at the 750-bed hospital before it was close and fell into disrepair in the 50s.
“The idea is to respect the architecture. I let the walls decide what part of the image should appear.”
An image showing members of the hospital’s operating room staff is superimposed on the tiled walls of a bathroom, and a photograph of immigrants walking down a gangplank is now perfectly placed above a downward staircase. Kinda eery and perfect for the site and this time of year. This would be some location for a Halloween party Friday night…
