“We may have lost the trains, but we’ve gained the whole world.”- Mare 139 What comes after a lossLindsay and I visited STRAAT, Amsterdam’s street art museum, during Museumnacht (Museum Night). There, I came across this quote in the exhibition Art Is Not a Crime, which explores New York’s graffiti culture through Henry Chalfant’s photographs and how it inspired people across the world, including artists in the Netherlands. In the 1970s and 1980s, graffiti artists turned New York’s subway trains into moving canvases. Eventually, the trains were cleaned up, and the artists lost the space that had made their work visible. But their influence had already travelled. What began on New York’s trains became part of a worldwide movement. What stayed with me was the possibility of something good emerging from a loss. When something ends, our attention naturally goes to what we can no longer do or have. It can be difficult to imagine anything beyond that. There is no guarantee that every setback will lead to something better. But this quote reminded me that what we lose does not always tell the whole story. Sometimes, its influence reaches further than we could have imagined. #StreetArt #Change #Possibility |
Week 45. Beyond the Trains
“We may have lost the trains, but we’ve gained the whole world.”- Mare 139 What comes after a lossLindsay and I visited STRAAT, Amsterdam’s street art museum, during Museumnacht (Museum Night). There, I came across this quote in the exhibition Art Is Not a Crime, which explores New York’s graffiti culture through Henry Chalfant’s photographs and how it inspired people across the world, including artists in the Netherlands. In the 1970s and 1980s, graffiti artists turned New York’s subway trains into moving canvases. Eventually, the trains were cleaned up, and the artists lost the space that had made their work visible. But their influence had already travelled. What began on New York’s trains became part of a worldwide movement. What stayed with me was the possibility of something good emerging from a loss. When something ends, our attention naturally goes to what we can no longer do or have. It can be difficult to imagine anything beyond that. There is no guarantee that every setback will lead to something better. But this quote reminded me that what we lose does not always tell the whole story. Sometimes, its influence reaches further than we could have imagined. #StreetArt #Change #Possibility |