Smart cars snag great parking spaces in New York; this one, created by Harlem-based artist Nari Ward, enjoys a privileged place on the High Line where an admiring audience regularly surrounds it. Inspired by an abandoned car that hosted a lime tree in his father’s yard in Jamaica, Ward planted an apple tree in this car, lining the exterior with rubber tire treads and turning a symbol of nimble urban driving into a stationary support for nature. (On the High Line through March 2017).
Matt Johnson’s ‘Untitled (Swan)’ marries industrial materials to the natural world by shaping a train track into the shape of an abstract swan set in the High Line’s lush gardens. Known for morphing everyday items – a crumpled Starbucks cup carved from wood and painted, a stack of plastic party cups actually rendered in painted bronze – into objects of wonder, this twisted rail pays homage to the former rail line on which it’s installed. (In ‘Wanderlust’ on the High Line through March 2017).
Tony Matelli pioneered his hyper-realistic sculptures before the social media era, yet they seem made for photographing and sharing. This bronze sleepwalker is a major traffic-stopper on the High Line not just as an art object in its own right but as a catalyst for audience interaction. (In ‘Wanderlust’ on the High Line through March 2017).
Every bridge, pier and building in Manhattan at the time of making is included in this marble rendition of the island by Japanese artist Yutaka Sone on the High Line. Isolated from the rest of the map, and created of white stone, Manhattan resembles a shrouded corpse. (Through March 2016).
Yutaka Sone, Little Manhattan New York, New York, marble, 2007- 2009.
Mexican artist Damian Ortega finds a new to suspend his sculpture in space (last winter he created an explosion of tools at the Cooper Hewitt Museum) in this graffiti made of rebar, as if he’s managed to tag the sky. (On the High Line in Chelsea through March 2016).
Damian Ortega, Physical Graffiti #3, steel, 5 ft 10 ¾ inches x ¾ inches x 7 ft 9 ¼ in, 2015.
