Author: Cody Wong

Making History Visible – Cody Wong

Nona Faustine stands with her back to the camera in a white skirt, holding white shoes in front of the one and only George Washington statue.

This photograph shows Nona Faustine standing in right front of Federal Hall, with her back to us, looking up at the bronze statue of George Washington(the FIRST president). She’s wearing a white skirt, her back is shown bare, and she’s holding a pair of white shoes in her hand. The title is a quote from a report about Oney Judge, a woman the the George Washington family enslaved. She ran away in Philadelphia of 1796, and when a customs officer in New Hampshire questioned why she left, the officers wrote that “a thirst for compleat freedom” was her only motive. Oney Judge daringly(this sent a pretty clear message) offered to come back to philadelpia if Washington promised to freedom after his death, and he SAID NO. In essence, I think Faustine’s goal was to show that we shouldn’t glorify Washington like a hero because he was a slave owner. Faustine stands small in the middle of the picture as you can. feel that something is wrong as she looked as if she was running from people with her shoes in her hands and her bare back shown. Her goal is to inform and “call attention to [places]” because a lot of places in New York are tied to slavery and people walk past them thinking those places have a clean slate.

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Cody Wong – Icons of New York

I chose the New York Public Library lion statues. To me, an icon is the most recognizable idea for a place or an idea. I picked these lions because they embody first off they are very recognizable and show guard the entrance to free knowledge. Something I found out about it is that the lions were sculpted by Edward Clark Potter and installed on Fifth Avenue in 1911, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia officially named them during the Great Depression to remind New Yorkers of the virtues needed to overcome hard times(Patience and fortitude). Today, they serve as the library system’s official logo and stand as an icon of what New York has not only been through but what it stands for.

Twins lions nypl
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Afro-Futurist Room

Cody Wong

In your own words, what is a period room?
I think a period room is basically a picture into time, like a room of that time, and I can stand
inside it.
Have you ever visited a period room? Which one? When?
I’ve been to a bunch of period rooms at the Met, which I honestly forgot the names of, but there
was this big oval one, and it was pretty cool. I don’t remember when.
What was the goal in installing the Afro-Futurist room within the context of the Met?
I think the goal was to put a Black New York home inside a museum that usually builds period
rooms around European ties, which fits because the Met is filled with European artifacts and
period rooms.
What is Afro-Futurism?
I think Afro-Futurism is art that puts Black imagination in the center and pictures a future, which
in this room means a home that isn’t copied off one European year.
Why the title of the room in the Met, “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: The Afro-Futurist
Room”?
I think the title is Before Yesterday We Could Fly: The Afro-Futurist Room. Virginia Hamilton because
the gallery really stands as a look into the art influenced by African American culture and the location itself is inside the Met and if you’ve even been to met you know it’s a bunch of European period rooms, so not only is it innovative it is really a statement.
Sign up here for one of the objects to research and share with the class. Why is this object
in this installation?
So I picked Cyrus Kabiru’s – Miyale Ya Blue, which is a super odd blue radio looking thing
that he supposedly made out of scraps. I can see the reused radio, and I can see the reused wood
around it. I think he’s supporting the environment by reusing other people’s trash, and he looks at
that trash with a nondiscriminating eye. In a room full of sporadic items, this fits in because it’s different from every other piece. Even the bottles don’t follow uniformity in color or size, and this doesn’t either. To me it shows the uniqueness of
culture, but I’m not sure.

Cyrus Kabiru's - Miyale Ya Blu work looks like made of colorful recycled parts
Cyrus Kabiru's - Miyale Ya Blu art inside of gallery 508
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New York: A City of Migrants and Immigrants II

Find another artist who addresses migration or immigration through art. What issues does
this artist address in this specific artwork?
So I picked Martin Wong after some research. He was a Chinese-American painter who moved to New York from the california to the lower east side. The artwork is called Attorney Street (Handball Court, 1982-84). It’s actually at the Met, which we’re pretty close to now that I mention it. Now based on what I can see, there is a chain fence and brick buildings behind it, and there’s graffiti on the wall and a poem written in the sky. Additionally, Martin also finger-spelled the title and his name on the frame in sign language. I think the brick buildings are about housing after people move here, and I think the chain fence is about the neighborhood feeling closed in. I fell that the art piece about crime and getting locked up. I think that Wong being Chinese-American and painting a Puerto Rican street really demonstrates the different immigrant groups living next to each other in New York in 1982(a very different time). I think it feels almost constricting and I also think that it shows about a separation of culture being a big issue in today’s world as well.

A painting called Attorney Street Handball Court 1982 showing a graffitied tennis wall with buildings and a chain fence full enclosing it with hands(seperation.
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Alice Austin – Cody Wong

IDC 1001H

Prof. Karen Shelby

7 September 2026


Who was Alice Austen?
She was one of the first women in America to do photography, capturing over 7000 images and depicted New York City's streets and her private life through the lens of a lesbian woman from 1866 to 1952

What types of things or sites did she photograph? Look through her photographs (there are a lot!) 
She photographed her house, New York streets, her friends, and immigrant quarantine stations just south of her house on Staten Island where ships stopped before Ellis island. She took photos of her and other women as well.

How and why do you think the subjects of those photographs are important in 2026? 
I think she really capturing New York in its whole from her perspective and i think it's important to see how far we've come because well I for one thing New York has gotten better in regards to accepting people. It's a reminder to use all of what New York was and what it should be.

Choose one of Austen’s photographs. Explain why you think the subject matter would be important or pertinent to today’s life in New York City. Upload the Austen portion of the assignment to OpenLab.
Alice Austin is sat on a fencepost while taking a photograph.

So I picked the one where Alice is sat on a fencepost. I think it’s interesting because I can visibly
see it is a track. I can’t see another woman perched up like that, and I would guess it was a faux
pas to be sat like that, so I feel that it’s like defiance, where she’s not where she’s supposed to be
as a woman watching cars.

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