Response to Lecture 11-1-11: Terminal 5 Documentary

Last Tuesday we watched a documentary about the Terminal 5 Project at Kennedy Airport. Terminal 5 was an architectural masterpiece created by architect Eero Saarinen. The TWA Terminal at John F. Kenedy Airport opened in 1962 and is considered the first step to the future of travel. Following the tragic day of 9-11, in 2001 after which many airports lost a lot of money, the site was vacated and closed to the public. The movie documents the 2004 project, curated and inspired by Rachel Ward that aims to bring Terminal 5 back to life and open it to the public as a contemporary art exhibition.
There were many inspiring works of art that I enjoyed in this exhibition, and also some I thought were senseless. Kevin Roche said in the video that the terminal looked like a skate, and I agree because it has a lot of wide open space, a lot of curved railings and platforms, and the openness of the terminal really is reminiscent of a Vans skate park. One of the artists, a graffiti artist or “bomber”, put graffiti on the rolling gates that gave the exhibition a city-like type of feel. Vanessa Beercroft’s piece consisted of many African women painted in all black, and I did not particularly like that piece because I felt the women were too exposed, and I could not imagine these African women getting on a plane and traveling thru this terminal. My favorite part of the exhibition was the gift shop because of all of the clever puns implied by the gifts and I especially liked the “Play with these matches”.
The Terminal 5 art exhibition featured work of 19 artists from 10 different countries to give the presentation a premise that showcases international travel. The show featured many different kinds of art including lectures and temporary installations drawing from the terminals architecture. The art project took about four months to complete and the exhibition opened on October 1st, 2004 and official closed on January 31, 2005. Unfortunately it also closed very abruptly the same night of the opening gala because people got drunk, vandalized the building, and stole some of the art. Apparently the opening night did not draw the ideal crowd, and many referred to this crowd as “coked out hipsters”.