Linda Cunningham: South Bronx Waterfront Sagas

Linda Cunningham explores the issues of time, transience, and contradictions through images of the shifting urban present. Environmental concerns juxtaposed against industry, urban blight, and the loss of the natural environment drive her practice, in addition to gentrification and the changing landscape of the Bronx, her home for many years.

For the Bronx Museum’s lobby wall, Cunningham’s mural combines unexpected materials with photo-transferred images. These images are layered with acrylic and pastel, revealing deteriorating remains of abandoned South Bronx waterfront areas, punctuated by multiple power transfer stations, railroads, and refuse transfer stations. The torn edges of bifurcated sheets of canvas and shards of information provide a glimpse of the South Bronx’s complex history as a borough with industrial landscapes and greenery.  

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.