Art in the Parks

Black, Trans, and Alive (Return Home) is made possible in part with funding from ArtBridge, and Facebook Open Arts.

Reclining Liberty is a mashup of the Statue of Liberty and the giant reclining Buddha statues of Asia. The piece, coated in plaster resin, is sturdy enough to allow viewers to touch, climb, sit atop, lean up against the figure, and interact with the monument at a human level. Finished with copper paint and an oxidizing acid, the patina mimics the actual Statue of Liberty. 

Reclining Liberty is made possible in part with funding from: Friends of Morningside Park, LMCC, Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZ).

For the High Line, Ibrahim Mahama presents 57 Forms of Liberty, an inverted industrial tank from a defunct manufacturing facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. The work is inspired by a rusted smokestack the artist saw at the locomotive workshop in Sekondi, Ghana that now has a tree growing from its mouth. For Mahama, the workshop is an important reference to the British use of railways to divide and exploit resources until the country regained its independence in 1959. While the British railways, a former industrial tank from North Carolina, and the High Line have very different industrial histories, Mahama notes that it’s often when we zoom out, and remove ourselves from a specific space and time, that we can come to see our shared history all the better. The sculpture on the High Line also has a tree growing from its top, an important image for the artist that mirrors the torch of the Statue of Liberty to the south, and the non-human agents that continue to reinvent the conditions for living on this planet, even among the structures built and abandoned by humans. 

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of the High Line.

For the High Line, Hannah Levy makes an oversized orthodontic retainer from carved marble and stainless steel. The piece points to the strangeness of orthodontics and straight teeth as a marker of class, in part because of orthodontics’ exorbitant price. The organic form of the cast mouth contrasts with its smooth metal bars, which conjures the feeling of the rigid form inside one’s mouth and invites external structures inside one’s own body. Levy’s giant retainer is almost as tall as the park benches nearby, and the retainer wire is the size of the High Line’s exterior railings, which sets the piece in conversation with the architecture and design of the park and its surroundings. 

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of the High Line.

Be Heard is a large-scale megaphone made of plywood panels arranged to create the conical form of the megaphone and assembled to create the structural framework that holds it up. The plywood was previously used as a barrier, providing security to businesses from the perceived threat of the protests on one side, and a canvas for expression to street artists and protesters on the other. By transforming the plywood to a megaphone, a device for amplifying people's voices, the project builds on these layers of use and meaning. It aims to elicit a hopeful and optimistic reaction, highlighting the resilience of New York City by showcasing how a material once used as a barrier during protests can be transformed to celebrate free speech and civic engagement.

The Plywood Protection Project is an initiative to collect the plywood used by NYC businesses to board up their windows during the protests of 2020 and redistribute it to artists, extending and repurposing the life of this material. Arts not-for-profit worthless studios collected over 200 boards of plywood and initiated an open call for artists, eventually selecting five local makers to participate in a unifying public art project across all five boroughs of New York. This piece is one of the five created by the project, each installed in a different borough of New York City.

This exhibition is presented by worthless studios.

The 14th Annual Times Square Love and Design Competition is presented by Times Square Arts in partnership with The Museum of Arts and Design.

Grounding is a site-specific outdoor artwork that is experienced through Augmented Reality (AR). By scanning a QR code on the sign near the site, viewers will experience an installation of thousands of large, reflective mirror-finished sequins on the grass in the shape of a tree shadow.

This mural is a celebration of the power of imagination coming to life in the playground where children are free. It tells a peaceful story through children interacting with each other in the spirit of joy. The themes of the mural emphasize nature, unity, respect, and the magic that children emanate. 

This exhibition is presented by Project Attica.