The Creation of a “Sculpto-Pictorama” of Manhattan by Artists

With a fiscal crisis looming, subways and roadways deteriorating, and crime rates on the rise, mid-1970s New York City tangoed with turbulence. In 1975, bristling against budget cuts that threatened city workers’ jobs, a group of police officers distributed “survival guides” titled Welcome to Fear City to visitors. The panic-mongering pages portrayed a violent, dystopian hellscape. “Until things change,” the pamphlet read, “stay away from New York City, if you possibly can.”

That same year, artists Mimi Gross and Red Grooms deftly sidestepped the fear-fueled narratives with heart and humor, and debuted their colossal art installation Ruckus Manhattan at 88 Pine Street in the Financial District. Anything but bleak or handwringing, the artwork depicted a warm, inviting version of New York City, abuzz with activity. Over a year or so, the pair (who were married at the time), along with a crew of more than 20 artists dubbed the Ruckus Construction Co., built the 6,400-square-foot, 3D cityscape — a “sculpto-pictorama,” as Grooms called it — with buoyant renditions of Manhattan’s buildings and neighborhoods. Each vignette was populated with exaggerated characters and infused with local color and texture. Made from a hodgepodge of materials, including fabric, wood, metal, plaster, papier-mâché, hot glue, and paint, the environmental installation was large enough for visitors to walk through and join the frenetic fray of city life to which it paid tribute.

Two selections from this legendary urban ode are back on public view in the Brooklyn Museum’s Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from “Ruckus Manhattan.” The featured artworks (both part of the museum’s permanent collection) are shown alongside an hour-long 1976 film that documents the making of Ruckus Manhattan, with all its madcap mischief and mayhem. A lively mix of zydeco, jazz, and funk-soul music, along with poetry recited by Gross and ambient street noise, spills from the screening room.

The first gallery, lined with Grooms’s scaled-up watercolored scenery, holds “Dame of the Narrows” (1975), in which a marigold Staten Island ferry floats atop a wavy blue fabric waterway. A message painted across the vessels’ floorboards invites visitors to “step aboard.” In the ’70s, you could traipse through the boat’s interior and explore the art up close, with its sculptures depicting a cross-section of passengers and crew playing cards, visiting the snack bar, and looking out at the skyline. To protect the structural integrity of the artwork, that’s no longer allowed. Now, the ferry’s entrance is blocked off with a warning: “No stepping.” You can still view the “Dame” at a distance, but most of the innards remain just out of sight.

The neighboring gallery retains the original interactive spirit with “42nd Street Porno Bookstore” (1976), a humorous riff on the seedy sex shops and adult entertainment venues that filled Times Square in the ’70s, before the area became a hotbed of supersized chain restaurants and off-brand Elmos. The shop’s facade advertises books, “girls,” and “hot stuff.” A hand-painted pink sign notes, “To enter, you must be 18 or over and open-minded,” and exhibition signage warns of sexually explicit content. Inside, the bookstore’s yellow walls are crammed with homespun porno magazines bearing bawdy titles that range from body focused (“Tit,” “Toesies,” “Fancy Pants”) to hilariously niche and absurdist (“Duck Suck,” “Hot Dog,” “Mounties”). On my Sunday afternoon visit, viewers lingered and giggled over the punny titles, snapping furtive photos and peering into the darkened backroom.

With a zest for New York City and its people and places — pretty or gritty or both — Ruckus Manhattan bats away hopelessness, choosing celebration instead. This spirited collaborative project and its populist vision, propelled by voracious creativity and humor, offer space for collective art viewing and imagination. It not only reflects slices of the city to its residents and visitors, but invites us in to be part of the circus of it all.

Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from “Ruckus Manhattan” continues at the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn) through November 2. The exhibition was curated by Kimberli Gant and Indira A. Abiskaroon.