When a legend dies, there's always one New Yorker who will head underground to transform a subway station into a temporary memorial. (The last one we saw was Kobe-Bryant Park.) Now the 50th Street C/E train station in Manhattan has been turned into a tribute to recently passed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As of Saturday at 8 p.m., the mosaics on both the downtown and the uptown platforms — which typically read "50th St" — read "Ruth St."
Adrian Wilson shared his latest piece with Gothamist, noting, "I'm the person who also did Aretha Franklin St, Prince RIP and David Bowery... It's my specialty!" (He also created one for Bruce Springsteen, which panicked some people.) Commenting on his catalog of unauthorized commemorative pieces, he says: "People really want to share their love and bereavement online when someone passes. Traditionally this was done with flowers and candles."
Wilson explained that he could not think of an obvious subway station that could be easily turned into a makeshift tribute to Ginsburg. "RBG was a hard one to find the right spot for," Wilson said. "The subway is always preferable because so many people see it. I scrolled down the list of stations and realized 50th St could be tweaked into Ruth."
To create the mosaic look Wilson and his friend Matt made an "easily removable" sticker "by painting onto adhesive contact paper and scribing the mosaic grout lines with a white and brown paint pen. The letters and blanks were made by creating a mosaic grid and stencil." He then tested out four paints to get the right color, and says that all in all it was a 5-hour process to get the look right — "Now you can understand why my Instagram name is a combination of planned and vandalism. These things that can be torn down in a few seconds take a lot of preparation and risk to make happen."
To the MTA workers who may be charged with removing his work, Wilson says, "I do apologize to the workers who will spend a few minutes removing it but on balance, the amount of joy they brought to so many people is worth it I think."
And to The Man, he says, "Technically this is illegal but if I am charged for it, in this particular case I believe the Supreme Court will dismiss my case!"
Wilson's tribute to Aretha Franklin was reworked and made permanent by the MTA, though the others have disappeared. We've reached out to the MTA to see if they'll allow this to stay up for a while and will update when we hear back.
