In “Signal,” artist Mel Chin, collaborating with Seneca tribe member Peter Jemison, draws upon the rich history of the Broadway and Lafayette crossroads, once a trading route for the tribes of the Six Nations. The mezzanine wall tiles depict figures from the nations with arms out-stretched to one another. The main concourse has conical forms at the base of support pillars shaped like campfires, used to send signals. Lights within these "campfires" brighten as trains approach and dim as they leave. Patterns within the steel forms derive from tribal badge patterns, that were based on a fusion of cultures. Another historical overlay is in the tile patterns around the concourse, they evoke rising smoke while the pattern is inspired by an Iroquois message of peace. In the artist's words, art should "provoke greater social awareness and responsibility," and this work demonstrates how this can be accomplished.

Born in Houston, Texas, Mel Chin is a category-defying artist whose practice calls attention to complex social and environmental issues. His diverse range of work from collages, sculptural objects, animated films, and video games to large-scale, collaboratively produced public installations, demonstrates his unique ability to engage people from diverse backgrounds and to utilize unexpected materials and places. Chin also insinuates art into unlikely places, including destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and even popular television, investigating how art can provoke greater social awareness and responsibility.   

Mel Chin received a B.A. from the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He has served as a visiting professor or fellow at a number of institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology CoLab, George Washington University, the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, and the University of Georgia. Chin’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at such venues as the Queens Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Among the many awards throughout his career, Chin was a recipient of the prestigious McArthur “Genius” Award in 2019.