New Sculptures Come to East River Park

On display this month at East River State Park is the inaugural Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition, featuring work from a selection of artists including internationally-celebrated street artist Swoon.

The temporary installation, which runs until June 6, is the most recent project in the beautification and softening of the once sparse and forbidding waterfront park. Just two weeks ago the park, most well known for as the new site for hosting free concerts from Grizzly Bear, Beach House, The Dirty Projectors and Mission of Burma, opened a new children’s playground that includes equipment such as a wooden train that lines up with historic railroad tracks embedded in the concrete, a seesaw-like human scale and wooden jumping platforms. Despite being bordered to the north by an industrial storage facility and to the south by an enormous gleaming condo, the park, which offers truly outstanding views of the river and the downtown Manhattan skyline, is well on its way to becoming a surprisingly peaceful—and, yes, beautiful—alternative green space to iconic, yet overrun McCarren Park.

Sponsored by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Preservation, the exhibition has received funding from many sources including Assemblyman Joseph A. Lentol and several key private donors.

The installation is curated by the non-profit group Urban Art Projects, which also hosted the book release for Swoon’s new book Saturday night at nearby Slate Gallery on Wythe Street. Founded in 2007 by Kim Vaadia and Martha Henry, UAP’s mission is succinct: “More public art in Williamsburg for the public to enjoy,” said Vaadia, a longtime Williamsburg resident and visual artist.

“It’s such a spectacular location,” Vaadia said with regards to the waterfront. “Since so many artists have studios in Williamsburg or have lived there, it seemed in keeping with the area. And since there was so little public art to speak of in Williamsburg, it was a void I wanted to help fill.” The last major public art installation to be displayed in Williamsburg was Jason Krugman’s Living Objects, which ran in the southeastern corner of McCarren Park from December 2009 until January of this year.

Perhaps the most representative sculpture in the exhibition is “Tree of Life” by artist Wu Ming. Located in the center of the park, Ming’s sculpture consists of two totem-pole-like “trees,” spaced several feet apart in a manner to suggest a gateway. The trees are constructed out of old tires, coffee bean sacks, wine corks and fragments of brick and rock. Inside the coffee bean sacks, plants, weeds and flowers grow out of tears in the fabric. The effect calls to mind those city plants, weeds and flowers that are always growing out of the cracks in sidewalks and parking lots.

Located at a spot closest to the river is Swoon’s sculpture, Konbit Study for East River State Park. The Brooklyn-based Swoon, whose real name is Caledonia Curry and who is most well known for her remarkably detailed and realistically-depicted street art, is a great fit for the installation.

“She is the quintessential public artist,” Vaadis said of Swoon’s art that can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Brooklyn Museum as well as the streets of New York. Utilizing the Super Adobe construction technique developed by the award-winning Iranian architect Nader Khalili, Konbit Study for East River State Park is a domed structure made of earthbags that resembles a wigwam, or a desert igloo. Featuring a series of four intricately detailed woodcut drawings at the sculpture’s top, Konbit Study is an intriguing and unique sight. (“Hmm, that’s kind of cool,” remarked an observer.) It’s worth noting that the aesthetic features of Swoon’s installation are combined with earthier—even “pragmatic”—elements. Swoon’s installation is more than just art—it’s a research project. As its title suggests, the installation is a study into the usage of the Super Adobe construction process that will be incorporated in Swoon’s volunteer rebuild Haiti project to take place later this year. Super Adobe is a technique that uses very little timber or other building materials and is a method which can be used to cheaply, easily, and quickly create structures that are hurricane and earthquake resistant.

“We learned a bit about making temporary structures with just gravel and bags, since the structure in the park had no concrete,” said Swoon. “We also got to experiment with changing the shape of the structure a bit, and also, all the experience we can get in building, even these scaled down, experimental forms is good for us. We have a lot to learn before we go.”

Swoon’s take on the result of her project is refreshingly modest. “I took it on as a chance to experiment with merging the learning of this building style, with making a sculpture,” she said. “It didn’t work so well, the sculpture is quite weird and awkward, but a good failure is a learning process too. I’ll definitely understand it better next time.”

The Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition installation may be ending in June, but Swoon will be taking what she’s learned to Haiti. “We are looking for lots of help on the Haiti project, particularly sponsors for shipping and materials,” she said. “So if anyone out there has some ideas and wants to pitch in, they should look at our site and contact us.” Those who are interested can go online to http://konbitshelter.org to find out more.

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