Public Art

WATCH – BPCA Presents: Public Art on Video

Battery Park City is home to a world-renowned collection of public art, a central and foundation element of this thriving 92-acre neighborhood. From sculpture like Martin Puryear’s stately Pylons, to Mary Miss’ intriguingly beautiful land and water installation South Cove, to Agnes Denes’ pioneering environmental work Wheatfield – A Confrontation, BPCA has a long history of presenting art from a diverse range of artists that powerfully transforms public space, encourages social cohesion, and promotes awareness about cultural, environmental, and civic challenges. As part of its strategic plan, BPCA has renewed its efforts as a place that cultivates the art for our time, evidenced by recent temporary installations such as Sunrise/Sunset (Revolution) by Autumn Ewalt and Dharmesh Patel, the debut of Blessing of the Boats by Muna Malik, and The House That Will Not Pass For Any Color Than Its Own by Mildred Howard.

JUSTICE REFLECTED
Artist: James Yaya Hough Glass and mirror

Created in partnership with the Art for Justice Fund and the Battery Park City Authority.

James Yaya Hough has created glass art panels filled with images that comment on social justice and encourage empathy for all humanity. The artist describes this three-part work as “a visual journey forged by my experiences and observations," which arise from serving 27-years in prison. He was released in 2019, after the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that life sentences for minors—as Hough was when he was convicted—were unconstitutional. Hough has since dedicated his practice to raising awareness of the impact of mass incarceration on communities, families, and society as a whole.

In this large-scale triptych, light is captured and reflected with colored glass and mirror. The imagery draws on universal references of hope and fear. At the center is a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which proclaims, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” advocating that change may take time, but it does come. Justice Reflected, is a visual call to action, for reform of the criminal justice system, and an invitation for reflection and empathy. To further activate the installation, BPCA is committed to facilitating connections between Hough and local community partners to expand the reach of his work over the course of its run. BPCA will host community events and conduct educational outreach to reach people beyond New York City, expanding the overall impact of Hough’s art. James Yaya Hough’s art humanizes people living and working within the criminal justice system. Represented by JTT Gallery in New York, he is featured in the 58^th Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2022-2023) and in Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration which originated at MoMA PS1, New York (2020-2021) and is touring nationally. Hough was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Office of the District Attorney, Philadelphia in 2020.

Blessing of the Boats: River to River
Artist: Muna Malik

Artist Muna Malik’s Blessing of the Boats, a 20-foot, mirrored acrylic origami-style boat into which each participant would place a folded origami onto which they had responded to the following prompt: We have an opportunity to set sail toward a new future; what society would you build and how do we get there? This interactive sculpture seeks to foster collective empathy and action through individual engagement and was co-presented with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Wheatfield, A Confrontation
Artist: Agnes Denes

In 1982, Agnes Denes planted a two-acre field of golden wheat on a segment of the Battery Park City landfill as a powerful paradoxical statement, drawing attention to issues of waste, world hunger, and ecological concerns. This public piece, along with the art show series “Art on the Beach” organized by Creative Time from 1978-1985, were the first of many public art project to be hosted in Battery Park City.

THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT PASS FOR ANY COLOR THAN ITS OWN
Artist: Mildred Howard Painted automotive steel and laminated glass

WATCH: BPCA Presents: Public Art on Video – The House That Will Not Pass For Any Color Than Its Own The notion of home and its meanings has been an ongoing investigation in Mildred Howard’s art for decades. The California-based artist’s prints, sculpture and mixed media assemblages explore themes of migration, displacement, gentrification, family history, the construct of race, and inequities between race and resources. The House That Will Not Pass For Any Color Than Its Own is a place conjured up from the artist’s deep reservoir of memories, historical research and imagination. The glass and steel house was created with everyday materials in combination with Howard’s mastery of physics that she used to infuse the work with almost regal beauty. It’s a simple, elegant house where viewers feel invited in through two open doorways. As if to throw doubt at what is usual and expected, the roof and walls have large, open spaces. Unexpected voids exemplify alternative definitions to our assumptions, and spur viewers to question the status quo. The installation will be on view through spring 2022. Read more

Sunrise, Sunset (Revolution)
Artists: Autumn Ewalt and Dharmesh Patel Aluminum and glass

Sunrise, Sunset (Revolution) originally consisted of nine triptychs of graduated heights that appear to rise and fall like abstract mountains, and correspond to the Sun’s path from east to west horizons. Three thousand prisms, installed both by the artists and by local students and community members, were held within the aluminum panels. Wide arms beckon with sparkling red, orange, yellow, blue, green and violet lights, drawing visitors near. People are playfully surprised to find clear glass activated only by natural light. Prisms create countless rainbows on visitors’ feet and other surfaces. The prisms’ curved compositions follow the Golden Ratio, again linking natural science and art. The title offers a parenthetical, perhaps humorous reminder that Earth is spinning on an axis and traveling around the Sun, enormous but generally overlooked facts. Reflecting the artists’ intention that art and beauty is for everyone, the site-specific work was assembled with public participation. After its temporary exhibition at Pier A plaza, two segments of the piece were donated to BPCA's permanent collection and installed on the northeast and northwest corners of Nelson A. Rockefeller Park in 2019.

The Real World
Artist: Tom Otterness Bronze

WATCH: BPCA Presents: Public Art on Video – The Real World Taking over its corner of the park with gleeful abandon, Tom Otterness’s whimsical sculptural installation entitled The Real World is one of New York’s most popular public artworks. Cast in bronze, the sculptures feature Otterness’s signature cartoonish figures: animals and people, bankers and robbers, laborers and pilgrims, predators and prey, all rubbing shoulders in his delightfully loopy narrative world. There is an entire bustling society in miniature including frogs wrestling over a moat, a titling tower and diminutive workers rolling giant pennies toward a multi-armed idol. Scattered nearby are a giant fist and feet and a bulbous-nosed creature seated on a bench pondering a bound animal that may be his next meal. Even as Otterness’s characters erect their monuments and enact their wile they remain oblivious to the giant viewer. Mixing levity and discord, biology and social commentary, Otterness’s fanciful world is always vividly entertaining. Tom Otterness’s other public commissions include the Los Angeles Federal Court Plaza and the 14th Street/8th Avenue subway station, in New York City.

Pavilion
Artist: Demetri Porphyrios Granite, wood, brick & copper

Rising from the scenic lawns of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, below the junction of River Terrace and Warren Street, The Pavilion occupies a unique position in the landscape, as if negotiating a common ground between the greensward and the city beyond. Because the structure has no walls, both the park and the hubbub of downtown are eminently visible through its posts. The Pavilion is crowned by a handsomely crafted square wooden roof, supported along its edges by twelve thin wooden pillars and at its center by four Doric style brick columns. Between the columns is an upraised platform girded by a bank of low stone steps, which provide ground-level seats for people-watching, hiding from the sun and looking out on the great lawn below. With its pared-down, classical elegance and appealing mix of styles, The Pavilion is a functional and symbolic waystation and a gracious response to the architectural cacophony of the surrounding city.

Pylons
Artist: Martin Puryear Granite & stainless steel

WATCH: BPCA Presents: Public Art on Video – Pylons Martin Puryear’s stately Pylons rise along the waterfront of the Belvedere, framing the sightlines of the Winter Garden. Both columns are made from stainless steel and are composed from six segments. In their contours they are a study in opposites. One is solid and all angles, thrustting downward; the other, an airy, volumetric weave of steel mesh gracefully spirals upward. Situated between the ferry dock and the North Cove Harbor, the Pylons are designed to be viewed from either land or water as a symbolic portal connecting the two. By day, they give the waterfront an identifiable landmark. By night, the two opposing columns are dramatically illuminated like beacons.

Waterfront Plaza
Artists: Siah Armajani & Scott Burton Bronze & steel

As the first major public waterfront plaza built on the Hudson River, the Plaza was commissioned by the Battery Park City Authority as part of its public art program, and was conceived as a multi-purpose space, providing the pleasure of variety via a range of open space for individuals, intimate groups, as well as large public gatherings. Starting from the north, there is the wide-open space of the court outside the Winter Garden, with plenty of room for outdoor concerts, lunchtime gatherings, jogging, and other activities. Along the eastern edge of North Cove is seating designed by Scott Burton. Here you can watch the sunset and read passages from Walt Whitman and Frank O’Hara celebrating the exhilarating spirit of New York City, which Siah Armajani designed into the railings along the water. At the southern edge of the plaza is a more intimate park, in direct contrast to the civic scale and atmosphere of the northern part. This relaxing space has benches and tables, which line an oval lawn - perfect for quiet sitting and relaxation.

The Upper Room
Artist: Ned Smyth Concrete, glass, gravel & bluestone

Designed by Ned Smyth, The Upper Room is a handsome colonnaded court marking the entrance to the Esplanade at Albany Street. At once dignified and playful, reverent and inviting, this self-contained sculptural environment suggests a contemporary reimagining of an ancient Egyptian temple offering stylized sanctuary from the surrounding city even as it formally echoes the rhythms of its urban environment. On its sides the work is girded by ruddy red pillars made of gravelly conrete aggregate recalling a fusion of decorative palm trees and Near Eastern architecture. Inside, it features a long table adorned with chess boards and twelve stools and an altar-like pergola sheltering an iconic palm tree. Like the tree form rising out of the table, this pillar is inlaid with colorful moasic tiles. Designed to be both functional and symbolic, The Upper Room lends an appealing air of ceremony, harmony, and mystery to its site overlooking the waterfront.

Rector Gate
Artist: R.M. Fischer Stainless steel, bronze, granite

R.M. Fischer’s Rector Gate is a festive archway marking the intersection of Rector Place and the Hudson River Esplanade. Built of Steel, bronze, and granite, and rising 50 feet high, the gateway draws its inspiration both from past and future, from Constructivism and Science Fiction, in the artist’s signature style. It is part Gotham and part Metropolis; and one almost expects to see bolts of electricity rising up its shafts to the skeletal cupola and fanciful spires of its crown. In its energetic, theatrical design, Rector Gate brings the romantic grandiosity of New York’s early skyscrapers and engineering feats down to human scale. The arch features seating at its base and is illuminated at night to add to its drama.

Sitting Stance
Artist: Richard Artschwager Granite, steel & wood

Artschwager’s installation consists of five separate pieces situated at the junction of West Thames Street and the Esplanade. At the center is a street lamp shrunken to squat proportions, surrounded by a wooden armature imitating its crown and girded by an upraised circular bench and table. A second circular seating area resembles an enlarged tree grating. The ensemble is completed by a throne-like seat made of granite, and a pair of reclining, slatted wooden deck chairs. Together, these works transform their cul-de-sac into an eccentric public recreation deck and mark a witty reflection of their urban environment.

South Cove
Artist: Mary Miss Natural plantings, metal & rock

WATCH: BPCA Presents: Public Art on Video – South Cove South Cove is an unusual, meditative recess along the waterfront. Considered one of the country’s most significant public artworks, the work is the result of a unique collaboration between environmental artist Mary Miss, architect Stanton Eckstut and landscape architect Susan Child. South Cove encompasses everything from carefully sited rocks, natural plantings, and atmospheric blue lights along the Esplanade to the water-racked pilings and the large, arching wooden jetty at the southern corner of the cove that extends into the Hudson like a pier. The jetty gently curves inward, back toward shore, as if in mediation of the city from which it springs. Overlooking the view is a raised metal tower recalling the prow of a boat or the crown of the Statue of Liberty visible beyond. At once dramatic and serene, South Cove is a place where land and water, nature and metropolis, past and present, gently coalesce.

Ape & Cat (At the Dance)
Artist: Jim Dine Bronze & wood

Although they do not have human features, Jim Dine’s Ape & Cat (At the Dance) exude the sort of civility and tenderness to which many urbanites aspire. Made of cast bronze, the figures are at onces amusing, allegorical, and unabashedly romantic. The work derives from a series of Dine’s 1990s drawings and sculptures that follow the relationship of this unlikely but adoring couple. Their sheltered placement along the promenade lends a sense of intimacy, joyousness, and unexpected grace to the site.

Eyes
Artist: Louise Bourgeois Granite

WATCH: BPCA Presents: Public Art on Video – Eyes Eyes marks a departure for the artist in that the subject, unlike previous treatments, is explored as two large units representing eyes separated from any suggested surrounding physiognomy. Resting directly on the ground a calculated distance from each other, they occupy considerable volumes of space between and around them which the viewer is invited to fill in with his or her own imagination. Thus a giant’s head emerges in one’s mind. The works are carved in granite with pupils suggested by large polished nodules. These are not inset but are integral part of the whole granite “eyeball”.

Resonating Bodies
Artist: Tony Cragg Bronze

Created by British artist Tony Cragg, Resonating Bodies consists of a pair of bronze sculptures resembling giant musical instruments. One resembles a lute, the other, a tuba. This playful work is based on the concept that all physical bodies, including ourselves, are constantly enveloped by various energy forms from heat, light, sound, and gravity to magnetic waves, x-waves, even radio and TV signals. The sculpture displays these forces with a wave-like relief on its surfaces. The work is set on the ground at the end of the tree-lined walks at the entrance to Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park. With its whimsical design and gargantuan scale, the work invites touching and interaction.

Ulysses
Artist: Ugo Attardi Bronze on marble base

Ugo Attardi’s Ulysses, a figure of warmth and energy is defined by the artist as II Modern Baroque. The body, fierce with beauty and Hellenic elegance is united to, and contrasted with, the helmet-mask, which hides and reveals weakness and complexity in the face of the warrior-hero. The dark mask, a chameleon-like piece of armor, resounds with aggressiveness and outrageous pride. Through the bronze, Attardi has tried to give life to the figure’s daringness and vitality as well as geometry of dance and the unrelenting thirst for knowledge.

JUSTICE REFLECTED
Artist: James Yaya Hough Glass and mirror