The Swedish Subway System

The Scandinavian countries have frequently set the bar when it comes to efficiency and design over the past century or so. These photos are a very vibrant reminder of those qualities. I find the images almost overwhelmingly inspiring. We can only dream of mass transit so modern, clean, and efficient in the United States, and works of public art here rarely approach the scope of this project in terms of both size and public engagement. You could certainly argue that the recent works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude fit this bill. However, their work is usually temporal and, in its own way, esoteric.

Conversely, the planners and artists of the Swedish Subway System appear to have deliberatley set out to project traditional Swedish folk themes and motifs in a very modern and urban way that reminds me of the output of the members of the Mission School featured in the film/book/exhibit "Beautiful Losers" (esp. Margaret Kilgallen, Barry McGee, Chris Johansen, Clare Rojas). I love the execution but i also love the apparent intention of reminding a community of its past, and humanity, while looking to the future, both artistically and technologically.


















p.s. can't figure out where the originals of these photos came from or i would link them. they're all over the interwebs though if you wanna see more.