Art in the Parks
Past Exhibits (2002)
Bronx
Brett Cook-Dizney, Information for Peace and Democracy
January 2002 to June 2002
Tremont Park, the East Tremont and Arthur Avenues entrance to Tremont Park
Description:
The 8'x 16' murals were installed as a collaboration between
Parks Temporary Public Art Program and the Bronx Museum
of Art.
Cook-Disney worked with the Collaborative Arts Program (CAP): Artists in Community Residencies, a museum sponsored public art education program, to produce portraits in response to the tragic events of September 11. With the help of community organizations, Cook-Dizney selected five participants that he interviewed using questions around peace and democracy. The interviewees were then invited to help sketch projections of themselves and their quotations onto plywood murals. Now that the murals are placed in public spaces, the entire community becomes engaged in the dialogue around peace and democracy.
The colorful and thought provoking murals that bring a vibrancy to the community during the winter months will be on display until June.
Manhattan
Kathy Creutzburg, The Bird of Imagining
June 2002 to June 2003
Sauer Park, 12th Street and Avenue B, Manhattan
Description:
The Bird of Imagining is a steel sculpture adorned
with colorful wooden feathers. It is based on the
poem written by Richard Lewis of the Touchstone Center.
Students from The Children's Workshop School painted
over 200 of the wood feathers to cover the bird's
wings. The kids from the Children's Workshop School
provided the inspiration for this sculpture. Their
original sketches and writings were on display at
the opening event on June 13, 2002.
Juan Muñoz, Conversation Piece
September 26, 2002 to April 16, 2003
Doris C. Freedman Plaza @ 60th Street and 5th Avenue, Central Park, Manhattan
Description:
The current Public Art Fund presentation at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza
is Conversation Piece,
a group of five life-size bronze figures by the late
Spanish sculptor and installation artist Juan Muñoz.
Over the past decade, Muñoz gained international
recognition for his "conversation pieces".
These groups of figures, with their mute faces and
expressive gestures, depict psychologically-charged
human interactions. The five figures ofConversation
Piecevariously lean together,
whisper, and ignore one another, transforming the
plaza into a theatrical space where a mysterious drama
plays out.
For additional information about the project, visit the Public Art Fund website.
Leonard Ursachi, Open House
May 2002 to March 2003
Tribeca Park, West Broadway and Beach Street, Manhattan
Description:
Originally placed at a site in Red Hook, Brooklyn,
Leonard Ursachi's sculpture Open
House has been re-installed
in lower Manhattan. According to the artist, Open
House explores the vulnerability
of shelter, the mutating nature of identity and the
porous nature of borders.
The sculpture, a rectangular structure with walls made from wood strips suspended by hinges, suggests the frame of a house. The walls, perforated and permeable, tremble and sway with even a light breeze. In the interior of the house, the wood strips become mirrored stainless steel. Visitors who step inside the house can experience their own fragmented reflections while viewing the activities of the park through gaps in the wall. On the house's only piece of furniture, a small table gilded in gold, stands a photo of Ursachi as a young man. This photo was taken in 1971 in front of Ursachi's family home in Romania before it was bulldozed by the state.
Andrea Claire, Simultaneous Life
September 24, 2002 to February 1, 2003
Located in five parks along Canal Street, Manhattan
Description:
Installed in smalltraffic islands and park triangles along Canal Street,
Simultaneous Life
consists of five windsocks made from silver metallic
fabric and mounted on 18-foot poles. Modeled after
windsocks used in aviation, the windsocks are intended
to provide a visual link between the frenetic street-level
activity of Canal Street and the larger cityscape.
Viewing the windsocks from street level, pedestrians
become aware of the direction of the wind, the sky
and the buildings rising above the street. When viewed
from above, the windsocks form a silver dashed line
down Canal Street, drawing attention to the place
of the street in the larger cityscape.
Simultaneous Life is one of six public art projects exhibited along Canal Street as part of Art in General on Canal, a group exhibition of public art celebrating Art in General's twenty years of exhibitions and programs in Lower Manhattan.
For more information about the show, visit Art in General.
Nancy Hwang, S: An Urban Oasis
August 27, 2002 to September 21, 2002
Petrosino Park, Kenmare Lafayette, & Centre Streets, Manhattan
Description:
New York City artist Nancy Hwang's performance, titled S,
involved giving free shampoos, conditioning treatments
and scalp massages to passersby on the small asphalt
triangle that is Lt. Joseph L. Petrosino Park. The
project was designed to be "an experiment in
economic and personal exchange, in which intimate
contact occurs between strangers". Hwang set
up in the park a professional shampoo station inside
a circle of potted palms, with in-kind donations of
shampoo, conditioner, and plumbing. S
is the third and last in a series of performances
for Hwang, who previously tended a bar at White Columns
and gave anonymous manicures at Artists Space.
In-kind donations, support and funding have been generously provided by Artists Space, Storefront for Art & Architecture, White Columns, Artists Space Independent Project Grants, Moon Belt Company, Laicale, Bicycle Habitat, Chris King of Plants, Dae Heung Services, Mr. Beauty Equipment Ltd., Pfiff Restaurant and Bar, and Sung Studio.
Related Info:
Media Advisory
Gloria Kisch, Octopus II
March 2002 to September 2002
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th Street and 2nd Ave, Manhattan
Description:
Octopus II by American artist Gloria
Kisch is a monumental stainless steel sculpture
from a series called Octopi made for Hammarskjold
Plaza. The piece is 20 feet tall and its longest tentacles
span nine feet. Octopus
II was installed in March
and will be on view at the plaza leading to the United
Nations through September 22, 2002.
Gloria Kisch has exhibited her work widely throughout the United States including the Las Vegas Art Museum, PSI, Institute of Contemporary Art, Newport Harbor Art Museum, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Kisch has represented the United States in the Biennial of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
April 2002 to June 2002
On the Park Avenue Malls at 57th Street, Manhattan
Description:
This impressive work by Manolo Valdés
is a reinterpretation of the ancient Iberian sculpture
La Dama de Elche,
and measures 10 feet in height, 7 3/4 feet in width,
and over 6 1/2 feet in depth.
La Dama had its public debut in Paris in the Spring of 2001, where it was included in the exhibition "Fifty Years of Spanish Sculpture" in the Gardens of the Palais Royal, which later traveled to Madrid. The artist is particularly pleased to bring his work to the general public here, as he has adopted New York as his home and workplace since 1988.
La Dama is a contemporary work that speaks loudly of the great history of Spanish art and culture. It is based on a well-known polychrome stone Iberian work believed to date from 500-300 B.C. Deeply inspired by the Iberian treasure, Valdés has transformed the iconic formal elements of the ancient work – a bust of a woman with a very complex headdress of ornate coils on either side of her face – into the medium and forms of contemporary sculpture. The striking simplicity and geometric symmetry of Valdés' sculpture display a modern conception of aesthetic beauty while still conveying the elegance and majesty of the subject.
Various Artists, 2002 Whitney Biennial Art in Parks
March 7, 2002 to May 26, 2002
Locations throughout Central Park, Manhattan
Description:
Parks, the Central Park Conservancy,
and the Public Art Fund hosted the outdoor component
of the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Works by five of the
113 artists selected for inclusion in the 2002 biennial
were displayed in Central Park.
Queens
14 Sculptors Inc., Urban Air Forms
August 15, 2002 to October 22, 2002
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens
Description:
This group show of eight sculptures, titled Urban
Air Forms, was on view in Flushing Meadows-Corona
Park in Queens. These works were located in the floral
beds of the rotunda, just off the Passarelle ramp,
near the entrance to the United States Tennis Center.
The arts organization which assembled this show is known as 14 Sculptors Inc. The group, originally based in Soho, New York, has been exhibiting since 1973. The installation is sponsored by the Rockaway Artists Alliance. These experimental sculptures are diverse in style, material and content.
Related Info:
See all
eight sculptures from the show.
Related Info
Current Exhibits
Art in the Parks Program
Temporary
Public Outdoor Art Guidelines