Case Subtype: Damaged/Nonfunctional (2026)
public installation
Times Square Arts
Case Subtype: Damaged/Nonfunctional, presents photographs taken by sanitation workers and public safety officers of the Times Square Alliance as part of routine maintenance of the district. The images document “cases” in public space requiring cleaning, repair, or removal. Workers use the photographs to document conditions along their designated routes and to assign tasks across departments. These utilitarian images register the daily observations of worker and the maintenance labor that keeps Times Square, “clean and safe”—the informal slogan of the Times Square sanitation and public safety departments.
Gathered and installed by Times Square Public Artist-in-Residence Maia Chao, the project reframes these procedural photos as a found archive of maintenance labor, and as a record of disruption and deterioration routinely erased from view. The installation is on display across 10 trash compactors throughout the plazas of Times Square from August 1 to 31, 2026.
Press
→ "Times Square will be surrounded by a West Philly artist’s work all August" The Philadelphia Inquirer
Research Assistant: Sidian Liu
Special thanks to Sanitation Workers and Public Safety Officers C. Davis, A. Branch, J. Brandon, R. Byke, A. Cruz, J. De La Mota, S. Ellison, T. Hayes, W. Jackson, I. Johnson, C. Kirkland, S. LaFleur, S. Manley, L. Miller, D. Moody, J. Moreira, A. Tall, M. Torres, A. Vestal, W. Zapata.
Photo by Michael Hull
Support for Maia Chao's Case Subtype: Damaged/Nonfunctional is provided in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
