AN ART-COVERED ISLAND
May 30, 2009 at 3:13 pm 1 comment
Governors Island, that 172-acre expanse in the middle of New York Harbor, will become a playground for an international group of 20 artists this summer. Creative Time, a nonprofit organization that presents art around the city, has commissioned them to create site-specific works that will become part of “PLOT09: This World & Nearer Ones,” a free exhibition that opens on June 27.
“We invited the artists to visit the island for inspiration,” said Anne Pasternak, president and artistic director of Creative Time.
The artists are a mix of well-known names, like Mark Wallinger and Lawrence Weiner, and emerging ones, like Teresa Margolles, Tue Greenfort and Edgar Arceneaux. The artists were not asked to follow a specific theme, Ms. Pasternak said, but rather to respond to the site.
Still, several themes naturally surfaced, among them the island’s military and social history, gothic or spiritual experiences, and time and travel. In St. Cornelius Chapel, for example, the London artist Anthony McCall is creating a light installation in which he carves out shapes with light and air. Ms. Margolles, a Mexican artist, is importing a cinderblock wall from Mexico City where a gang-style execution occurred.
There will also be remnants of a bit of mysticism. The New York artist A A Bronson and his collaborator, Peter Hobbs, will leave the remains of a séance in which they tried to conjure spirits on the island.
New York Times
Entry filed under: Get Wet, Manhattan, Public Waterfront. Tags: Creative Time, Governors Island.
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lydia sopoliga maxwell | May 30, 2009 at 4:25 pm
As an unusual artist, site listed above, who just vacated NYC to plunge over the river, I anmintriged and would have submitted, but want to know details so I can at least attend and mingle. Pllease forward information, thank you.