Martin Puryear’s huge wooden structure, sheathed in chain-link fencing and capped with a gold-leafed shackle, towers over Madison Square Park’s main lawn like a seated animal. Its shape echoes the Phrygian cap, associated with French revolutionaries and freedom and explored recently by the artist, and is topped off with a gorgeously gleaming shackle – a gilded symbol of servitude. (At Madison Square Park through January 8th, 2017).
Titled after mirages that form on the horizon line, Teresita Fernandez’ ‘Fata Morgana’ in Madison Square Park playfully imagines what it would be like to inhabit the mirage. Her sprawling, 500 foot long installation of golden, mirror-polished metal covers the park’s walkways, creating both a dappled pattern on the ground and a through-the-looking-glass effect in the reflective surface overhead. (Through winter ’15-‘16).
Teresita Fernandez, Fata Morgana, Madison Square Park, through winter 2015-16.
Brooklyn-based artist Orly Genger is known for sculpture and installations involving knitting, but she outdoes herself in Madison Square Park with an installation made by knotting 1.4 million feet of nautical rope collected on the East coast and arranged in undulating waves around the park’s trees. (Though Sept 8th).
Orly Genger, ‘Red, Yellow and Blue,’ installation view at Madison Square Park, nautical rope & paint, July 2013.
