Month: June 2008

Okay, Sea-Fever has gotten a little art happy lately, I know. But there is so much contemporary art that has some kind of maritime angle that I find interesting. Art, after the sea, is one of my deepest passions so that’s why I post about it. If you aren’t interested, don’t worry, I won’t take it personally if you skip a post or 2; just make sure you come back. Please!

Earlier this week the largest public art project in NYC since Christo’s Gates in 2005 opened in various sites along the city’s waterfront. “New York City Waterfalls” by Danish Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson consists of 4 large temporary manmade waterfalls on the East River. The project is reported to have cost nearly $15.5 million of public support, foundation funds and private donations. The Public Art Fund is the main sponsor of the project.

From the NY Times:

Flanked by Mr. Eliasson, the mayor (Bloomberg) said at the opening ceremony — which began around 10:30 a.m., a half hour late — that the “Waterfalls” were a “symbol of the energy and vitality that we have been bringing back to our waterfront in all five boroughs.” (link)

Also, from an earlier article in the NY Times, the artist on the project:

Given that much of New York City is surrounded by water, the idea of creating waterfalls seemed obvious to Mr. Eliasson, who suggests that New Yorkers are not as strongly connected to their waterfronts as urban Europeans are.

Throughout history, he said, New Yorkers “have always taken water for granted.” He added: “Now people can engage in something as epic as a waterfall, see the wind and feel its gravity. You realize that the East River is not just static.” (link)

And from the press conference for the project launch:

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tebsVt9W9Fg]

[YouTube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=rKSNyswMuAw]

Well from the articles I’ve read and pictures that I’ve seen I’m completely underwhelmed. I love contemporary art that challenges and really want to like this project. But there’s something about this piece that makes it appear to be a caricature or parody of contemporary art. Personally, I have trouble seeing past all of the scaffolding and not thinking of other NYC waterfalls like this. I know I should reserve judgement until experiencing it firsthand so maybe we’ll make a trip to NYC to check it out before it closes in October; hope we’re not disappointed.

Calculating the Worth of East River Waterfalls (NY Times – June 28, 2008 )

Photo credit: Vincent Laforet for The New York Times

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Regular Sea-Fever readers know I’m a sucker for maritime art and Shuli Hallak’s work first caught my eye in a recent NY Times Sunday Magazine editorial. One of her photographs (below) was used in They Way We Live Now column which was entitled Tariff to Nowhere.

So I was pleasantly surprised to run across even more of her work again today in a Moco Loco, The Modern & Contemporary Design Blog post.

Hallak was identified by PDN (Photo District News) as one of 30 “new and emerging photographers to watch” in 2007.  Moti Hasson Gallery in New York City is currently exhibiting “Cargo” (May 8 – June 29, 2008). From their website:

Shuli Hallak’s recent photographs document cargo in its state of transit between production and consumption. Almost every manufactured product humans consume spends time in a shipping container, yet consumers remain largely unaware of the process by which goods are actually transported. Hallak describes a cargo ship as a “sublime, moving city” and finds beauty in the fundamental necessity of the shipping industry, in the romance of travel over sea, and in the raw, precise, purely functional architecture of ports. In “Cargo,” Hallak unveils an essential stage in the delivery of goods from manufacturer to consumer and invites viewers to share in her process of discovery and in her fascination with what she finds.

I love Hallak’s art; the beauty and magic of it and the ideas behind it.

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