We Own the Night: The Art of the Underbelly Project

Having discovered a never-completed subway station in Brooklyn, two street artists%E2%80%94Workhorse and PAC%E2%80%94brought in artists from around the world to reclaim the space with original artwork. From the spring of 2009 to the summer of the following year, the Underbelly, as it came to be called, became a subterranean gallery, accessible only to those few who knew where to find it. Conceived in part as a commentary on the commodification of street art, notable figures such as Ron English, graffiti progenitor Haze, as well as the lesser known Dick Chicken and Indigo, sometimes hid from MTA workers or police in complete darkness for hours. Works such as Mint & Serf's graffiti inflected dismantling of the American flag a la Jasper Johns or Trustocorp's deconstruction of commercial art resonate with more conceptual pieces, such as Jeff Stark's site-specific performance, in which the tuxedo clad artist served a multi-course dinner to two well-dressed friends in the underground space. The works in the Underbelly deliberately set themselves outside of traditional spaces for art and commerce, destined to be largely unseen firsthand. It is fitting%E2%80%94though tragic%E2%80%94that shortly after word of the space reached the press, the MTA sealed off access to the station. This book itself then becomes a testament to art for its own sake, an artifact of a project that posed the provocative question: "If no one will see it, will it still be important?" Color photos. (Feb.)