Art in the Parks

Untitled is part of the group exhibition The Animal Mirror, on view nearby at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP). Korstanje’s site–specific installation consists of five sculptures and continues her investigations into the way art can intervene in the processes of the natural world. The sculptures are made from a mix of natural and human-made materials and are designed to serve as attractive homes for solitary bees. Unlike domesticated bees, solitary bees live alone, rather than in collective hives. Designed as much for use by the garden’s natural fauna as they are for the enjoyment of its human visitors, the sculptures will alter with the changing of the seasons.

Korstanje–a Dutch artist whose mother is a beekeeper–began her involvement with bees in 2006 in the midst of the first scientific reports of colony collapse disorder, in which a large number of honeybee colonies in North America and Europe suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. Traced to the use of industrial pesticides, among other causes, this phenomenon still poses a serious threat to agricultural production in the world, where bees play an essential role in pollinating many crops. Korstanje’s installation is meant to visually suggest swarming masses of insects, while the incorporated bamboo sticks and their hollow interiors also provide ready-made nesting grounds.

This exhibition is presented by International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP).

The Rose Crystal Tower stands 31-feet tall and is composed of Polyvitro crystals and steel. Polyvitro—an invention of Chihuly Studio—is the artist’s term for a plastic material which he casts into individual chunks which resemble glass, but are lighter and more resilient. Chihuly first used Polyvitro crystals in the composition “Crystal Mountain,” a 40-foot sculpture featured in the artist’s landmark exhibition, Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000.

Dale Chihuly is an American artist known for revolutionizing the Studio Glass movement and elevating the perception of the glass medium from the realm of craft to fine art. Over his 50-year career, the artist has become known for his iconic glass sculptures and ambitious architectural installations in historic cities, museums and gardens around the world.

Hell Gate Cairns is a series of stacked stone pillars, or cairns, that stand watch over the western coastline of Riverside Park. By focusing on the forms of natural stone, the piece draws attention to the boulders that line the waterfront, remnants of the great earthmoving projects of the 20th century that cleared the city’s waterways, including the perilous “Hell Gate”. The monument’s placement at the water’s edge recalls these feats of human engineering, while further calling upon the cairns’ symbolism as an ancient sign of treacherous waters. Their verticality a reflection of the nearby skyline, the Hell Gate Cairns aim to embody the human impulse to imaginative construction – stacking stones first in play, then as architecture.

Through her colorfully crocheted, intensively worked, and oversized flowers, Naomi Lawrence believes that small artistic gestures can lead people into a new imagination about their home environment. She uses ubiquitous chain-link fences to frame color and texture in surprising ways, creating interaction between fiber, color, fence, sidewalk, and passing pedestrians and validating under-recognized and unappreciated corners of neighborhoods. At Anibal Aviles Playground, she created a giant magnolia–a seasonal Parks flower–which was installed in June. A crocheted hibiscus tree to be installed on the fence of J.H.S. 054 Booker T. Washington across the street in September, following a series of community workshops to make the leaves.

Constellation is an architectural sculpture, performance, and panel series that activates the underused plaza in Seward Park as a transformative community public space. The site-specific sculptural pavilion is composed of interlocked wooden modules that will be re-arranged and transformed seasonally in three different configurations over the course of the exhibition.

This exhibition was made possible by the Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant.

From 2008 to 2012, Capucine Bourcart walked every street in Manhattan, from State Street to 220th Street, taking photographic details of walls along her route. This collection of photographs is used to create a photo-assemblage made of 4,170 metal squares that hang from a chain link fence in a design inspired by those of Native Americans’, the island’s first inhabitants.

This exhibition was made possible by the Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant.

Romanian artist Leonard Ursachi’s “What a Wonderful World” is a large, egg-shaped sculpture woven from branches, on which a world map has been sketched with pigmented cement. It has two recessed embrasures, each inset with a stainless steel mirror. The form and woven branches evoke nests, birth, history, and nature, while the map may be read as humanity’s trace. The title can be interpreted as ironic, cautionary, or celebratory, depending on the viewer’s perspective. Ursachi’s art often addresses the impact of people and their governments on the earth, in addition to examining the impact of borders on individuals and societies.