Les Levine We Are Not Afraid

We Are Not Afraid, created by Les Levine (b. 1935, Dublin, Ireland) is an artwork exclusively for New York City subway riders, consisting of an originally designed placard displayed in 4,800 of the “premium square” advertising spaces inside the IRT, BMT, and IND subway cars for one month. Levine believes that the same space used by mass media to sell the viewer products can also be used to bring the viewer to a new art experience. Levine integrates the concept of a media image in his color photograph of a young Asian couple gazing directly at the viewer, the sunset behind them. Above their heads, in red bold letters, are the words We Are Not Afraid. Levine is not explicit in the meaning of the poster; rather, he states, “the work contains a secret. The answer to this mystery is the way the viewer’s mind works.”