Arts for Transit and Urban Design

Pleasantville

Jane Greengold and Kane Chanh Do

Almost Home, 2002

Sculptural seating

Twenty-two cast bronze sculptural chairs greet those who use the Pleasantville Station. The pieces represent different types of seating and the variety of domestic décor. They are arranged in groupings throughout the station overpass and waiting area. Artists Kane Chanh Do and Jane Greengold, who created Almost Home, explain: "In this suburb of New York City, we have re-created, in bronze, chairs likely to be found in the homes of the commuters who use the station, bringing some of the comforts of home out to meet the riders, making the station almost like home, and reminding riders that they, too, are almost home. Because the chairs look so life-like, so much like wood and upholstery fabric, they create a humorous, trompe l'oeil effect." To complete the domestic setting, nearby is a bronze replica of a copy of Reader's Digest; for most of its history the magazine was published in Pleasantville.