The big event of the summer was Olafur Eliasson’s extravaganza, The New York City Waterfalls. Towards the end of April, the way was paved for the much-heralded installation on the shores of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Governor’s Island by the opening of a survey of the Danish-Icelandic artist’s work, “Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson,” held at the Museum of Modern Art and P.S. 1.[1] A well-orchestrated press campaign reinforced the interest level. Early in June, a rectangular tower of scaffolding appeared, rising against the great gothic pier of the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side. Once our eyes were sharpened by this new addition to the river-edge, we sought and found the tower’s mates, scattered along the waterfront: against the Brooklyn Heights esplanade, looming at the end of Governor’s Island, and a little north of the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side. Each tower seemed different, one tall and narrow, one a little wider. The tallest, we learned, was 120 feet high, the shortest, 90 feet. The scaffolding under the bridge seemed to be the broadest and chunkiest of the towers, and appeared to have the most specific relation to its site, nestled as it was against the stonework of the bridge, its proportions echoing that of the massive support. As the inauguration date of The Waterfallsgrew closer, we were offered more information about how water from the river would be pumped to the top of the scaffolds, about the ecological virtues of the project, and about
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Waterworks
On “Take Your TIme: Olafur Eliasson” at the Museum of Modern Art and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, “The New York City Waterfalls” along the East River, and other public art in the city.
This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 27 Number 1, on page 42
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