Underground, Overlooked: Art of the Red Line

By Marin E. Gray

Outbound to the Magellanic Cloud: Ligia Bouton’s ‘Temporary Monument to Henrietta Swan Leavitt’ at Kendall/MIT

Hoping to find my way back to Harvard Square from MIT, I ducked around a tarped fence on Main Street per the advice of a roadside sign. Its oversized letters — too imperious for its situation, I thought — promised that my subway commute in the “RED LINE - ALEWIFE” direction would start around the makeshift corner. My tentative steps carried me to an open door on the ground floor of a sleek office building, and a demure paper sign posted on the window with two pieces of Scotch tape confirmed that “MBTA KENDALL OUTBOUND” would be found within. I descended a staircase inside into a temporary tunnel of white walls, fluorescent lights, and what looked like masking tape baseboards — along with one of the most compelling art installations I’ve encountered in any space, tunnel or otherwise.

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Harvard Station’s ‘Blue Sky on the Red Line,’ and A Case for the Art We Speed Past

I spent an hour and a half in the Harvard Square bus terminal. It wasn’t long enough.

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