New York's Funny Faces Get Even Bigger

Artist Gabe Barcia-Colombo thinks all New Yorkers should slow down, put away their cellular devices, and instead take in their surroundings via 60-channel video wall. While it was located at the Fulton Center & Dey Street Concourse, New York Minute translated the spontaneity of street interactions into super slow-mo video portraits of locals of diverse ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities.

"I want you to be distracted by art," the artist explained to The Creators Project. "The excitement of living in the city brings them together." The video's cast of characters includes a navy captain, an 80-year-old ballerina, a subway musician, an investment banker, a doctor, an artist, a boxer, a Top Chef contestant. "People come from different walks of life, yet they all have a similar desire to tell their story," he adds. The casting call asked for volunteers who "wanted to share their New York story."

For Barcia-Colombo, who has always been interested in collecting archetypes, the most interesting part of the creative process was getting to know the individuals as he and his crew got each shot. We asked him to introduce us to a few of the people he got to know through making this work:

"[Above] That's Lew Gardner. He's been an actor, a poet, a writer, a businessman. He's letting all of that stuff go in this shot," says Barcia-Colombo. The two brainstormed an action to show pure happiness, and Gardner ended up deciding to throw out all the dollar bills in his wallet. Gardner once played an older version of the artist in previous work of a human aging punch clock.

"Here is an example of a portrait that's very true to the person," he says. The woman holding a sunflower is the artist Takayo Noda. Her giant stained glass pictures of flowers and natural scenery can be found in the subway stations of New York, he adds.

To find these two ladies, Barcia-Colombo put out a specific call for anyone who loved going to the beach in the summer. "They didn't know each other before, but they sort of became immediate friends," he says. "That interaction when one sprays the other—she had no idea it was coming."

To find out more about Gabriel Barcia-Colombo's work, click here.

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