THE ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY Fall 2017 | Baruch College | Macaulay Honors

While walking through Washington Square Park, I absorbed the beautiful atmosphere of the park. It is a sort of escape from the concrete jungle that is New York City. Unusually however, in the middle of the park stood this steel arch that people were surrounding. As I ventured towards the arch, I looked up as I usually do in New York City and noticed that the arch in fact was reflective. I think that this reflectiveness really spoke to the community of New York. Staring into the mirror, you say yourself as well as all of the other diverse faces that make up the city that we love.

I play tennis at the USTA every week and therefore have the pleasure of seeing the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park very often. I was very excited to see find out the there was a piece of Ai Wei Wei’s work on display here. This display spoke global unity in such a strong way. It surrounds the globe that sits in the middle the park which is very symbolic. Queens is a very diverse area I think that this symbol of immigration was very important to the area.

Banner #80 in Brooklyn: Ai WeiWei uses the city’s many lampposts to showcase the lives of refugees and immigrants. Each picture is of a refugee or immigrant that has their own story to tell. This banner showcased a portrait of Christian Yezidi from a refugee camp in Iraq. I think that the way that Wei Wei gives us a different perspective of seeing people by using the banners allows us to look deeper into their lives. This man looks like he’s smiling slightly, showing that despite everything that he might be struggling with in life, he still has hope or something that makes him happy and I think that that is a lovely message to portray in this art.

If I had to create my own public art display to engage the New York City community, I would create a large metal statue in the shape of the state of New York that spins. The statue would be covered in pictures of New York City that are related to all of the different boroughs and counties. The theme for my curatorial assignment was the different identities of New York. By visually showing all of the different parts of New York geographically, I think it would give a great representation of how diverse New York is. People might see different parts of New York that they may not have even known existed. This display would certainly engage the community in discussion because a little piece of every New Yorker would be represented on the statue. Even if someone lives in Manhattan, they might be originally from Upstate New York and they could feel a sense of nostalgia by seeing their hometown area represented. I feel that people would be interested in hearing stories from all of the different areas as well which I hope people would share as they observed the piece of art.

This piece of public art would be placed on the West Side of Central Park across the street from the Museum Mile. I feel that this would be a perfect place for a statue holding the message of diversity. People visit museums and the museum mile in order to learn about history and how the world has changed in so many different ways. In our society today, diversity is very important. So, I feel that having a public display of diversity in New York is a perfect addition to all of the art that is shown on the museum mile and that the display would fit right in.

Mulling over the title of this installment, “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” I initially thought, how does a fence, a structure designed to keep something out, reinforce the ideas of immigration and embracing good neighbors? Visiting the various structure was enlightening. Walking along Washington Square Park, I noticed something quite interesting about the installments of Ai Weiwei: from each angle there is an experience. Starting with the lampposts, the banners that hang from them are unique in the way that they can be viewed from either side while each banner remains consistent. Weiwei took these photos of hundreds, if not thousands, of different immigrants across an entire socio-economic spectrum; yet, they are all represented in the same form. They are all unified in the same fashion. The second photo taken was the same type of installment as the first, but the idea behind the actual photograph seems to differ greatly. This banner shows smiling children looking towards a bright future, whereas the other illustrates the hardships of immigration, the hardships of leaving a home behind. This made me consider my own place in society and those around me and think about the possibility of having to uproot a life. But at the end of the day those barriers that differentiate immigration create a beauty in understanding the whole. In this sense, the good fence makes the good neighbor.  

The final  installment that I visited, and by far my most favorite, was the Arch at the entrance of Washington Square Park. From far, the path through the arch itself seemed like any other, but looking inside, Weiwei’s narrative became quite clear. The walls of the inside are distorted mirrors, like those of a fun house. Seeing the people around me and their reflections in the mirror like some sort of embrace, transformed the security-like aspects of the Arch into a unifying factor. The wires of a prison-like fence became symbol of unity for good neighbors, whether they are from this country or another one. 

Weiwei certainly did an amazing job engaging the community surrounding his pieces, as they are all relatively simple to understand, appreciate, and interact with. It is this aspect that I would aim to capture in an installment of my own. Ideally, the installment would bring awareness to the Inclusion movement, a movement dedicated to bringing awareness, acceptance, and accommodation to people of all abilities. They would be placed throughout the city in places everyone visits, in places that we often pass by without notice and are ignorant of the struggles they present to others. One such location would be decrepit street curbs that can no longer accommodate those in wheelchairs. Perhaps I would mend it, and somehow create a piece of art out of it with the use of colors to draw attention to it. Often, people are looking down while on their phones, so they will come to notice such locations. Another such location may be the train platforms that lack elevators. Along the stairs, I would paint a world of inclusion and the coexistence of all people of all abilities. Perhaps the paradox may bring about some questioning and, along with it, change. Another aspect may be a sculpture of something caged in wide-open area, such as a park, although those locations are quite limited throughout the city, to illustrate that while living in such an open-minded world, some are still living restricted by societal notions. I would want people to see things that seem to be out of place and question their purpose, for it is only in asking questions that a person receives answers and becomes aware. I believe this idea is essential to raising awareness to any issue. There has to be some means by which the public’s attention is captured; it is only then can we expect to see change throughout society and within ourselves.

Grace Kassin