Aten Reign: Reflecting on how we see
I recently visited New York City with Felice to see James Turrell’s Aten Reign installation in the Guggenheim’s rotunda. I’ve always been interested in Turrell’s work as a light artist because of his exploration of how we perceive space through light. Of course, I was also drawn to the notion of a Turrell installation in Frank Lloyd Wright’s great rotunda space – for me this was a “must see” installation equal to Christo and Jean Claude’s The Gates installation in Central Park in 2005.
While lying on the floor of Wright’s rotunda looking straight up into Aten Reign, I thought about how I perceived space, how I see color, and asked myself how the oval above was changing shape and color. As the color undulated, flattened, blurred, and continually changed, my sense of perception that I thought was mine, was being effected in a way that was unfamiliar to me. Felice and I asked each other questions about what it was we were seeing – “why was the light outside of the rotunda always the complimentary color to the color of Turrell’s great oval above”? We asked each other if we were seeing similar phenomena – sometimes we were, sometimes we didn’t. Optics and physics, and light natural and artificial, were at play for sure to the delight of all. For me, the best art should make us ask questions of ourselves. It should be active, not passive – and interestingly I found the experience of visiting Aten Reign to be meditative but also requiring a deep focus that felt like work.
Central Park + Highline: perception of the city
Upon leaving the museum, we walked along Central Park back to our hotel through the crowded and dense 5th Avenue. While on this walk, and earlier in the day when we walked through the park, I started to think about how Central Park offers relief and respite for New Yorker’s. Olmsted’s park offers New Yorker’s the opportunity to escape the density and frenetic pace of the city. While at lunch in the park, I overheard a restaurant patron state that “it’s as if 150 years ago Olmsted was thinking about my pleasure”. I cannot put it any better than that!
A similar, but much more contemporary version of Central Park of course is the popular Highline designed by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. While enjoying a sunset stroll along the Highline, we saw many people enjoying a different perspective of their city. Friends and families were enjoying the walkway and all of the various sitting areas along the way. The natural landscaping is doing very well and is wonderfully maintained offering visitors a connection to nature that is impossible to get on the cities sidewalks. This particular experience and perception of the city is truly unique to any city, and the amount of building development and art installations along the Highline demonstrates that the project is a great success. The Highline transforms the city and gives visitors and residents alike a unique opportunity to engage with their city.
Billboard as seen from Highline.
New Yorkers watch their city go by.
9/11 Memorial: Personal reflection
Our final leg of this New York visit was to the 9/11 Memorial. Designed by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, the memorial is a large urban park with two large fountains at the former site of the two world trade center buildings. The new One World Trade Center designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill soars 1776 feet over the memorial site. Memorial architecture is truly a special skill as it is meant to evoke a wide variety of feelings of remembrance. Visiting memorial sites is a deeply personal experience and in this context of construction cranes, vendors selling 9/11 “souvenir” booklets, and large crowds of visitors I found it challenging to be contemplative at the 9/11 memorial site. Contrary to my experience, Felice found the memorial to be much more powerful. I do expect that at some future visit when all of the construction is complete that I will find the memorial to be very moving. During this particular visit at the site of Ground Zero as it stands today it is impossible not to think about the massive loss that has occurred there. The scale of building repair and rebuild is unlike anything I am likely to ever see in my lifetime.
9/11 Memorial
What started as a long weekend trip to New York City to see an art installation has evolved into introspection and reflection about how I and other’s see – and how the array of experiences offered by cities affect who we are. I encourage everyone to visit your own city, or get out and visit other places and consider how you experience a sense of place.
David
