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Beautiful deterioration: Local artist brings ‘Urban Decay’ to the Funk House

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In 2009 photographer Jay Scott began photographing the Glenwood Power Plant in Yonkers, New York, an industrial brick behemoth built on the Hudson River in the early 1900s that was shut down in the 1960s and left abandoned. Designed by the same architects who worked on Grand Central Station, its vast interior included a Cathedral-like turbine room made of steel and brick and lined with industrial windows, a grandeur that decades of decay has not diminished.

Jay Scott 's Urban Decay at the Funk House

Scott, now a Las Vegas resident, made six visits to Glenwood over two years, staying, he says, from morning until sunset. The ventures resulted in images of the symmetrical precision and textured deterioration of the turbine room illuminated with golden hues from natural light, along with the interplay between the sprawling plant’s stairwells, pipes and catwalks and its corrosion and graffiti.

“The way the light came through the giant windows let me see how the years have shaped and scarred this place,” Scott says. “It’s as if, over a hundred years later, there is more vibrancy now than when it was an industrial giant.” A collection of these images will be displayed through April at the Funk House. Printed on metal, they are a rich and thoughtful nod to beautiful decay.

Urban Decay Through April 29; Tuesday-Sunday, 1-4 p.m. The Funk House, 702-678-6278. Receptions April 2, 5-8 p.m. & April 3, 5-9 p.m.

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Kristen Peterson

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