Mona Chalabi
100 New Yorkers
On view through November 30
22 screens across the Westfield World Trade Center campus
Presented by LMCC in partnership with Westfield World Trade Center, with support from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as part of River To River 2020: Four Voices. Exclusive print partner: Absolut Art
By using hard data as the foundation of her art, multidisciplinary artist Mona Chalabi reconstitutes information that is often decontextualized and dehumanized, transforming numbers, charts and statistics into readable, digestible and understandable visual narratives. Her work lays bare the multi-layered and intertwined nature of the systems and structures that we live within and the indisputable effect that these unseen conditions have when they play out across our society.
100 New Yorkers visualizes what the city’s population would look like if it were distilled from its ungraspable millions to a more relatable 100 individuals. Using census data, Chalabi has created 100 characters that, as accurately as possible, visualize the racial, economic and social realities of the city’s population. By framing these characters through various statistical lenses, Chalabi relays a multitude of nonfiction narratives that tell the story of the New York public, and how environment, health, wealth, physical ability and education affect how the diverse population lives, dies and exists in between.
Signed, limited editions of Chalabi’s work are now available exclusively through our Exclusive Print Partner Absolut Art. Order your prints today!
100 New Yorkers Drawing Competition
Artist Mona Chalabi created 100 New Yorkers to help us see what New York City looks like across different ages, races, genders, abilities, and neighborhoods. In this drawing competition, the NYC community showed us what their slice of New York looks like.
Mona Chalabi is a data journalist who lives in New York.
She is a writer. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, New York Magazine, The Guardian and many more. She has written for radio and TV including NPR, Gimlet, Netflix, BBC and National Geographic .
She is also an illustrator whose work has been commended by the Royal Statistical Society. Her work has been exhibited at several galleries including the Tate, The Design Museum and the House of Illustration.
Lastly, she’s a producer and presenter. She’s one half of the team that created the Emmy-nominated video series Vagina Dispatches.
Before she became a journalist, Mona worked with large data sets in jobs at the Bank of England, Transparency International and the International Organization for Migration. She studied International Relations in Paris and studied Arabic in Jordan. Mona was born and raised in London.
Photo credit: Lizzy Johnston
Past Related Event
LMCC and LMHQ hosted a conversation with data journalist and artist Mona Chalabi and Absolut Art Global Creative Director Michelle Grey on Thursday, October 1 at 5:30pm. Mona and Michelle discussed Mona's 100 New Yorkers project which is now live through November across Westfield World Trade Center's digital network. Attendees had the opportunity to win a 100 New Yorkers print from Mona and Absolut Art.