Ting-en Tsai

Neighborhood, New York, New York is a series of five digital illustrations. Each illustration piece is a visual depiction of my memories of and experiences in a New York neighborhood.

I have lived in the city for five years, and it has become a second home where I have created numerous memories. Amid the good, the bad, the tranquil, and the chaotic that orchestrate this metropolitan scene, the bustling variety of NYC neighborhoods often comes to the forefront of my archive of memories. Each neighborhood is woven through with a visible streetscape and invisible traditions, symbols, and human experiences.

As New York City is so frequently portrayed in art and media, I wanted this series to be a narrative only I could create—a visual experience depicted through my own senses and memory.

Each illustration features a main character, a cartoonish figure meant to be perceived as separate from the other people in the scene. Wearing a pair of shoes I once wore, this character invites viewers to experience the emotions, sensations, and atmospheres of the illustrated neighborhood.

I started this project in Manhattan, the place where I have lived the longest. For the piece I chose the five locations with which I am the most familiar: the Lower East Side, the East Village, Greenwich Village, Central Park, and the Upper East Side.