I went to Cooper Union to visit Five Fences placed on the Science and Art building of the college. It was my first time visiting the college. At first it looks like it’s a part of the building, but then the silver color adds a huge contrast to the Cooper Union building. The five fences reflects on immigrants blending and conforming within society. The artist most likely used the silver color to help alienate the fences, so it would stand out more like immigrants in society.
Out of all the exhibits of Ai Weiwei, this one intrigued me the most. I passby Washington Square Park often, and I finally stepped foot onto the park to see the full steel sculpture set right under the arch. As you go through the sculpture, you see the outline of two figures conjoining together. The figures uniting symbolizes not letting fences or barriers be a factor of division among people.
On Fridays, I work in Brooklyn, so I decided to take a stop by one of the bus shelters near my job. I wondered why he chose a random bus stop in Brooklyn, but he states that it’s to emphasize the human right of free movement. When you look at the bus stand, the artist placed images of a group of children affected by the global migration crisis. Under the picture it stated, “ It surprised me to see so many children not crying. They’re just like adults-it’s wet, it’s cold, it’s an unacceptable situation. Their tears must be all used up.” He’s bringing awareness to the situation, and adding a fence to a public transportation stop symbolizes one being limited on where they want to go.
My topic for my curatorial project was gun violence, and since then there was a shooting in Las Vegas, New York, Texas, and Georgia. I would take a compilation of headlines and pictures of the shooters, and place all the events on a huge glass wall. This will aware people on gun control as well as not all shooters are from a certain background or religion. I would place it right in the middle of Time Square, as it is a huge hub of people from all around the world. This will allow me to share my message from my curatorial project globally, right at home, New York like Weiwei does. The form is a sculpture, and hopefully the enormous size will allow people to spot it easily. Time Square being a huge spot for tourism will allow people to discuss their opinions and viewpoints of what’s going on in the world. We, as a society are getting so used to seeing these shootings on the news, as if they are everyday news. We need to make a change, in order to do that we must bring awareness on the topic of gun control to prevent events like these shown on the sculpture. My intention to gather all this information is not to upset people, but to ‘wake them up.’ Gun control is being neglected in the world, instead of putting the blame on a specific group of people, we need laws against guns. With my sculpture, I want that theme to be relevant through the information and pictures presented on it. Public art allows you to reach and speak to an audience you don’t encounter often. Similar to the artist, Weiwei, I would like my Time Square sculpture to make an impact on people when they see it, which is the purpose of public art.
