Mural One: sixth, seven, eight, (go) forth

Mural Two: Twenty-Five: A Game

Location:
M.S. 407 School of Technology, Arts, and Research, Brooklyn

Commissioned by:
NYC Department of Education and NYC School Construction Authority
Public Art for Public Schools program, in collaboration with the
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art program

Collection:
NYC Department of Education, Public Art for Public Schools

Press Release:

John O’Connor created two large-scale tile murals for the new School of Technology, Arts, and Research in Brooklyn. Each mural began as a series of intricate hand drawings made at the exact scale of the finished works, a labor-intensive process combining graphite, colored pencil, and collage. These drawings were then scanned, reassembled, and digitally printed with ceramic pigment on porcelain tile. Through this translation, the walls transform from solid porcelain into surfaces that appear soft and tactile, resembling paper. The texture, color, and visible evidence of the hand blur the boundary between drawing and architecture.

The first mural, sixth, seven, eight, (go) forth, spans the inner lobby and vestibule walls, the threshold between inside and outside. It presents a mirrored grid of letters that resemble a logic puzzle or crossword. The words “sixth,” “seven,” and “eight” reference the middle school grades, while “forth” evokes the idea of moving forward, toward high school and beyond. The letters shift incrementally, morphing one grade into another before looping back to the start. This visual rhythm reflects what O’Connor describes as students’ “incremental growth and maturation,” the slow and often imperceptible transformations—physical, intellectual, and emotional—that occur during middle school.

The second mural, Twenty-Five: A Game, installed along an adjacent corridor wall, depicts a meandering helix contained within a geometric field resembling a point graph. It represents the evolving patterns of thought, action, and identity that accompany students as they progress through each grade. Developed from a mathematical system of O’Connor’s own invention, the mural invites viewers to trace connections and find relationships, like a connect-the-dots puzzle. Both murals include notations, erased equations, and fragments of sketches that reveal the artist’s working process, analogous to how students’ notes, calculations, and doodles lead to moments of understanding and discovery.