Viewed in a certain light — usually fluorescent — many of New York City’s subway stations are aging underground crypts in need of serious renovation.

White tiles have faded to a dingy beige; some bear the rust-colored scars left by water damage. Floors are so mottled one might have trouble discerning their original hue. And metal pillars are covered in layers of flaking paint that cannot conceal the corrosion underneath.

These are not, traditionally, the qualities associated with an aesthetic masterpiece.

But that did not stop two art students from playfully reframing New York’s subway system as an art museum that documents and preserves the city’s anthropological history.

As part of a project they are calling the “M.T.A. Museum,” the duo has been placing small cardboard signs similar to museum labels at several subway stops in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The placards’ witty titles and captions cast the subway system’s floors, furniture and metal fixtures as works of art.