Cable Crossing 1996

The Brooklyn Bridge's pioneering use of steel cables and a suspended roadway are repeatedly referenced in the design of artist Mark Gibian's work. Within the west mezzanine a web of cables recalls the graceful forms of the bridge, while overhead a 30-square foot structure, suspended beneath a skylight, frames the cable work. At the turnstiles, three panels that also use cables serve as a functional barrier. For the artist, the "lacy" curves of the panels "echo the beauty of the bridge's cross-hatched cables and the feeling of flight as it springs across the East River." The energy of Cable Crossing suggests "the controlled power of the subway and its network of metal and concrete that undergirds the city. I wanted to explore movement, using soft curves with hard materials," Gibian says.

A number of Gibian's pieces can been seen around New York. His 2008 stainless steel sculpture, Crescendo, is located on the Northside Pier in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His 2008 Serpentine Structures, made of galvanized steel, sits along the water in Manhattan's Hudson River Park.

edited from MTA Arts & Design