Pedestrian Observations explores Manhattan’s Chinatown’s public and private spaces through a detailed panoramic drawing and map of contested land uses. This project was co-published by Myles Zhang with non-profit artist collective City as Living Lab and architect Stephen Fan. The printed folding map highlights the vibrant interactions among diverse community members, while emphasizing the need for better public space management. Inspired by urban theorists, the project seeks to foster conversation about economic development and resilient urban environments.
《行人观察》(Pedestrian Observations) 将详尽的全景绘画对照各种土地利用的地图，深入探讨曼哈顿华埠的公共与私人空间的使用。该项目由张之远 (Myles Zhang），建筑师樊一鸣 (Stephen Fan)， 和艺术家公益团体“城市实践工作室” (City as Living Lab) 联合出版。这份折叠地图描绘多元社区成员之间充满活力的互动，同时强调加强公共空间管理的必要性。本项目综合城市理论家的研究，提倡灵活变通的都市环境，从而促进经济发展。
As published by City as Living Lab as part of the University of Michigan’s grant-based program for public scholarship VIEW PUBLICATION >
The text and images for this walking tour were created for the non-profit artist collective City as Living Lab, as part of the Jane’s Walks tour series at the Municipal Art Society of NY. In this walking tour with observations of Chinatown’s history and streetscape, I feature a few of my watercolors. I guide visitors to see Chinatown’s architecture as a container and mirror of shifting social norms and a culturally rich immigration history. As people shape their built environment, their built environment in turn shapes them – their values, beliefs, health, and life outcomes.
Read transcript of tour and interactive map of Chinatown created for Municipal Art Society. VIEW PUBLICATION >
The ink on paper detailed panorama of New York City took 800 hours to complete. The image measures 45 inches high by 79 inches wide (114 cm by 201 cm) and features every neighborhood and key landmark the length of Manhattan island. As my art project created during the pandemic, it serves as a personal keepsake and reflection of my rich memories of New York City.
Drawing is shared online in lower resolution. Email me for the full-size file. Custom size prints will be mailed to your home address on request. VIEW PUBLICATION >
Inspired by the Stettheimer Dollhouse at the Museum of the City of New York, I created this pop-up model of New York City in a box. Measuring 8.0 by 15.5 by 2.5 inches (20 by 40 by 6 cm), this paper craft model showcases 30 hand-cut paper and tin buildings. A hand-cranked mechanism moves magnetized trains and airplanes through a hand-painted and imaginary landscape of New York City streets and neighborhoods. VIEW PUBLICATION >
This digital portfolio highlights various artistic projects, time-lapse drawings, and models I created of Columbia University’s campus, during the time I was a student there. The portfolio features a detailed ink and watercolor campus drawing, a mini model of the campus made from paper, and six time-lapse sequences documenting artistic processes. Featured in multiple publications, these creations are now a personal souvenir of my education at Columbia.
Contact me to download source files or to order custom prints mailed to your home address. VIEW PUBLICATION >
This time-lapse of Manhattan Chinatown took sixty hours to complete and measures 26 by 40 inches. The artwork features Chinatown’s tenements in the foreground, with Lower Manhattan’s skyscrapers towering above.
Drawing is shared online in lower resolution. Email me for the full-size file. Custom size prints will be mailed to your home address on request. VIEW PUBLICATION >
A wind-up music box featuring Jane’s Carousel along the Brooklyn Waterfront. When closed, the antique cigar box measures a mere 7 by 7 inches and 3 inches deep (18 x 18 x 8 cm). When opened, the Brooklyn Bridge and historic Jane’s Carousel fold out. The carousel spins to the tune of the music while the moon slides across the night sky. VIEW PUBLICATION >
This project features a portfolio gallery of my drawings, watercolors, paintings, and photographs of Manhattan island. The portfolio is divided into ten “walks” over the chapter structure of ten “days.” Each “day” features some of my artwork about a different neighborhood of Manhattan: Chinatown, SoHo, East Village, West Village, the High Line, Madison Square, Midtown, Central Park, Riverside Drive, Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Washington Heights. VIEW PUBLICATION >
In the summer of 2014, I built a model of New York City containing many of the city’s landmarks, skyscrapers, and a flock of subway cars. This creation measures a mere 28 by 36 inches (70 x 90 cm) and is made of wood, paper, and plastic. VIEW PUBLICATION >
Dedicated to Professor of Economics Brendan O’Flaherty for helping me apply to Columbia as an undergraduate.
The following video lecture contains paintings and photos I compiled while walking in New York. VIEW PUBLICATION >
In this visual essay of drawings, paintings, and photos I explore my walks in Manhattan Chinatown. Chinatown is both static and dynamic: Static in its resilience against gentrification, dynamic in its cultural interplay between past and present, immigrant and American. VIEW PUBLICATION >
A visual essay of artwork and photos from my experience of walking in the South Bronx.
Strolling in the Bronx, I am arrested by the inner-city grid that stretches mile after mile. Block after block, street after street, a never ending treadmill of bodegas, tenements, hair salons, C-TOWN supermarkets, strip malls, and laundries. In the treadmill of the city grid, I become an explorer lost wandering. I retrace my footsteps. VIEW PUBLICATION >
In the New York City of my imagination, dinosaurs emerge from the Museum of Natural History to prowl “the city that never sleeps.” They roam the streets engaging in dinosaur-like activities: scaring people, stealing from butcher shops, and terrorizing the skyline. For one night, the city belongs to them.
The impressive range New York’s architecture, from the humblest home to the slenderest tower, is expressed through this model of my memories. With a base measuring 28 by 36 inches (70 x 90 cm), I built this model in middle school out of wood, paper, and plastic. It contains several dozen of the city’s landmarks, skyscrapers, people, lampposts, subway stations, and a bevy of operating subway cars. VIEW PUBLICATION >
A selection of some of my drawings, paintings, and pastel work about the architecture of Manhattan VIEW PUBLICATION >
When I gaze across the Hudson River from New Jersey, the soaring towers, glassy behemoths, and dark canyons of Manhattan instill me with awe. The broad expanse of the city juts out of the water with crenelated and jagged skyscrapers as if proclaiming: “I am here to stay. Come sun, wind, or water, I will remain. I will grow.” VIEW PUBLICATION >
View more artwork like this about my experiences walking in New York City.
Also featured in the Columbia Daily Spectator in September 2016
The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine soars above the low-slung tenements and boxy towers that edge up against it. Unfinished it survives; funds have long since dried up in our era of secularism and consumerism. Yet powerful it stands; solid stone will outlive the concrete and glass city. The cathedral’s soaring jagged silhouette seems to proclaim against the soot that darkens its façade and the urban din that drowns out the sanctity of silence: Come weather, wind, or rain, I will stand.
