Every broken bench and kiosk in Times Square gets photographed by the worker who fixes it, filed under a category like "damaged/nonfunctional," and never seen again — Chao pulled thirty of those images out of the system and bolted them onto the trash compactors they describe. It turns a maintenance log into a portrait of who keeps the busiest plaza in America running. Street-level public art with a real idea in it, free and walkable in daylight.
What to expect
A self-guided loop through the pedestrian plazas, looking for the green Bigbelly compactors with photographs mounted on their sides. Each carries an image from the sanitation and safety maintenance archive. The whole set takes about half an hour to find at a walking pace.
Good to know
- Take the N, Q, R, W, 1, 2, 3, 7, S, A, C or E to Times Square–42nd Street
- Free, outdoors and self-guided — nothing to book
- Daylight is better than night for these; the video piece is the after-dark half of the project
- Look for the green Bigbelly compactors, not the standard wire baskets
- Flat, step-free pedestrian plazas throughout
- Pairs naturally with the artist's nightly billboard piece if you stay late
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Common questions
Who took the photographs?
Times Square sanitation workers and public safety officers took them as maintenance documentation. Chao selected and reframed them as an exhibition.
Where exactly are they?
Mounted on Bigbelly trash compactors distributed through the Times Square pedestrian plazas along Broadway and Seventh Avenue.
Is it related to the Midnight Moment video?
Yes — both are part of Maia Chao's Times Square Arts public artist-in-residence commission this month.
More this weekend
