At this installation, I must admit, if it wasn’t for the assignment or the yellow sign, I would have never stopped to think about these fences. I would assume that it’s just the way it usually is. Having my attention brought to this installation, I believe the fences are symbolic of both keeping people in and others out. They are also enclosing the high arches of the building, creating an area that wouldn’t usually be highlighted by fences. They have been placed very abstractly.
This huge installation is placed very strategically. It is in the middle of the arch at Washington Square Park. The cut out of the fence that imitates the shape of the arch looks like two people walking together. Once you walk inside, the sounds create an interesting echo and it feels as if you are surrounded by a solid structure. Once you’re on the other side, you look back and realize that the things around you are not solid at all. The fences have holes in them and they are hollow. This interactive installation hides many messages, one being about how fences can make people feel entrapped and closed off, even though that might not be the case.
It was difficult to spot these banners at first because it depends on which angle you look at them from. Looking at them directly, you can clearly examine a face. From the sides, they seem like black banners with small holes that encourage you to change the angle in order to make out the image. If you don’t know much about the exhibit, it is difficult to understand what their purpose is. Reading about the concept, I infer that these are the faces of people who struggle with immigration and the way that it, unfortunately, divides people.
My curatorial project was focused on a topic that is incredibly important to me. I created a museum exhibit that would shake up people and make them act in change about saving our environment and taking care of our planet and the animals that we live with. My public art project would be the same. In hopes of refraining from being incredibly dark and sinister, I would demonstrate what people are doing to our planet from a different perspective. I would ask cartoonist and artists that value the same ideas as I about protecting our planet and I would give them different scenarios like throwing garbage on the floor, driving cars that pollute the air, fracking, and careless rich people that seem to let these things go by unnoticed. I would ask these artists to draw these scenarios – reversed. I would like people to imagine what it would be like if our earth made acid and garbage rain from the sky, the way we throw chemicals and garbage on the ground as if it were normal. I would imagine that digging holes in peoples’ bodies to extract a very valuable liquid would seem harsh and uncanny, the way fracking cause irreversible damage. I would place tons of these cartoons in huge scales all over the city, where people will see them in their daily life activities. I realize that this sounds very harsh and unpleasant, but I also realize that this is how our planet would feel if it has similar capabilities as we do. I’m aware that our planet doesn’t have feelings, but I am also aware that our planet causes earthquakes and tsunamis and storms that we aren’t very fond of either. My public art project would be art with a warning and a cry for action. (I would love for Trump to be in New York City to see it.)
Ellen Stoyanov
Hi Ellen! I really enjoyed your blog and your own ideas for a public art project. I agree with your reflections on the fences project, because I also would have never noticed the exhibit if it weren’t for this class and the assignment. Many of the project posters and exhibits seem like normal, every day things I would see in the city, and unless you really stop and take a look you would easily miss it. I think that the idea of shoving something more unpleasant or drastic in the eyes of the public may be the only way to get people to truly open their eyes and thoughts to things they are overlooking, which is why I really loved your nature project. Great blog!