Over 1,200 screens, four boroughs and one New York City full of Shantell Martin's questions.

Throughout October 2026, Shantell Martin brings WHAT IS THIS ALL FOR into the everyday movement of New York City through Moments by OUTFRONT. Launching across a network of nearly 1,200 digital placements, the project stretches from Manhattan to Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, appearing not in a single gallery or destination, but within the spaces New Yorkers move through every day.

Using Martin’s own typeface, Shantell Sans, bold black-and-white words and phrases interrupt the familiar visual language of the city.

Words have always been part of Martin’s drawing practice. For her, there is no hard separation between language and image. Letters are made from lines. A word can be a drawing. But words also arrive carrying history, emotion and consequence.

They can be poison, They can be medicine, They can provoke, They can comfort, They can ask something of us.

WHAT IS THIS ALL FOR takes that idea out of the studio and places it directly into public space. Rather than asking people to travel somewhere to encounter the work, the work travels into their day, onto a platform, along a commute, between one destination and another. And within spaces ordinarily filled with messages telling us what to buy, want or become, Martin inserts something less certain: A question, A thought. A moment of encouragement. An interruption. There is no required answer.

Someone might notice a phrase for three seconds and continue walking. Someone else might carry it with them for the rest of the day. That possibility is the work.

WHAT IS THIS ALL FOR launched October 1, 2026 through Moments by OUTFRONT across New York City. Select digital formats continue throughout October.

Art + concept: Shantell Martin
Animation: Ben Sheppee
Layout support: Marcio Kelmanson

Presented through Moments by OUTFRONT