Joe Giordano Memories in Transit

Memories in Transit is a triptych depicting childhood toys. The artist’s intention for the work is to create a “dreamlike feeling when commuters walk into the station—like a memory.” Joe Giordano (b. 1969, Baltimore, MD) achieves this by means of the images he chooses to paint. One of the three panels depicts a toy airplane flying in a blue sky toward a cut-out palm tree. The common link between the three paintings, which may be viewed as one large work or as three separate panels, is the image of toys, specifically toys of transportation (i.e. a train set and a steamer ship keychain). All the objects depicted are actually objects from the artist’s personal toy collection.

The work is visible from the 9th Street entrance to the PATH station and can be viewed on the three walls surrounding the stairwell leading to the platform. The entire work measures 46’ x 8’ and the images are executed in alkyd paint on plaster. In addition to the installation of Giordano’s painting, the station itself has undergone extensive renovation, which began in 1986.