Transit Man!!!

Christian French is an artist living and working in Seattle, with whom I had the pleasure of showing at Soil. His installation, Transit Man, documents his experience riding Kings County public transit as the eponymous super hero of his own creation.



The installation touches on many of the same issues as Bicycle Rehabilitation Project - environmentalism, urban sustainability, social responsibility, and the integration of art, activism and everyday life. Through the use of the superhero formula Christian makes allusion to the extraordinary world-saving possibilities inherent in using public transit. At the same time, his humourous depiction of himself - not exactly the stereotypical superhero figure beneath the mask and cape - situates agency within the realm of the everyperson. Taken together, Christian connects everyday choices to the extraordinary consequences they may have.

Among all the Transit Man artifacts Christian places quotations from critical writing dealing with comics and superheroes:



This quote sums up Christian's exhibition better than any other, and really gets to the heart of mine as well.

See more of Transit Man visit Christian's website at:

http://transitman.org/