CartOURgraphy © Ellen Driscoll 2016, Byzantine glass smalti and metallic glass tile, Middle College High School and the International High School, Long Island City NY
Commissioned by Public Art for Public Schools
Photos: Etienne Frossard
www.ellendriscoll.net/ CartOURgraphy
The first mural you encounter in the entryway shows the five boroughs set into a reflective silver mosaic background. Each borough is comprised of colourful abstract tiles that are taken from a map of the world.
The second mural weaves together a ‘right side up’ map of the world with an ‘upside down’ one; the two maps were hand-painted as watercolours with a colour spectrum across the land masses, and then cut into strips and woven into a single paper “cloth”.
As students and teachers from all over the world attend classes, hang out in the hallways, and weave their way through the campus, so too do their histories, cultures, and languages intertwine and come together to form their community.