:: December 2004/January 2005 ::

People on the Verge

Julia Solis of Ars Subterranea

text Teena Apeles photo Julia Solis

Writer-photographer Julia Solis gives new meaning to the underground scene. As founder of Ars Subterranea, a collective of creative folk exploring gritty, abandoned New York spaces, she produces adventures—from art installations and unique preservation crusades to generally bizarre treasure-seeking expeditions—that take brave participants to often-dangerous locations most people would pay to avoid.

“Cities like Berlin and Vienna have organizations dedicated to making subterranean spaces and their vital histories accessible to the public,” says Solis, “but there was no artistic group in New York specifically geared towards the underground.” In the spring of 2002, under the name Dark Passage (another organization for daring individuals), she organized a scavenger hunt themed around World War I espionage called “The Lost Head of Mata Hari.” She describes it as “a madcap collision of spy characters and WWI relics” that concluded with a banquet in a rail tunnel. Not a typical night out in the city, but the kind of outing Solis loves. Soon after, Ars Subterranea was born to share her passion—“the creative potential inherent in abandoned underground locations”—with other hardcore urban explorers.

Upon launch of the organization and subsequent events, like venturing down a manhole into the Long Island Rail Road tunnel for an art exhibit and the recent “The Riddle of the Buried Stream,” a mapped search for the secret river carrying New York’s purest water, Solis found she was far from alone in her appreciation for the underground. With such events having drawn a dozen to hundreds of enthusiasts, many people shared the desire to rediscover what quirky historical tidbits exist in the city’s forgotten spaces.

While working on her latest book, New York Underground: Anatomy of a City, just out on Routledge, she had the opportunity to really delve into the city’s remains. “The research took me into tunnels, substations, bunkers, crypts and other incredible spaces with both historical and architectural significance.” And with the book’s publication in November and Ars Subterranea, she’s bringing these spaces back to life.

So what’s in store for the fearless explorer and Ars Subterranea in the new calendar year? There’s the book and video on an art-deco era medical complex in Jersey City, a feature film entitled American Ruins visiting abandoned locations all over the country, and, of course, another thrilling city scavenger hunt and photo exhibit.

But the most valuable treasure she’s found through her organization’s various escapades is a community. “It’s exciting to have a group of artists united by a love for huffing asbestos,” says Solis. “I feel very lucky to work with people who live for the prospect of crawling through collapsing tunnels and wading through pigeon shit to see the sun rise from the roof of an abandoned hospital. It’s an appreciation of those sorts of aesthetics that fuels our projects and I’m happy that it seems to be finding some resonance out there.”

Visit Ars Subterranea on the web at www.creativepreservation.org and Dark Passage at www.darkpassage.com.