Client: NYC Parks

Overview

As part of Art in the Parks, Brooklyn-based sculptor Fitzhugh Karol’s “Searches” now sits in Brooklyn's Prospect Park — intersecting steel shapes are derived from the simple silhouettes of the landscape. The integrated features provide a chance to engage with the work in a way that most sculptures do not allow, appealing to the community in a fundamental way.

Goals

My work reflects architectural interventions in the natural landscape. "Searches" responds to the "Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch" near the entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY. NYC Parks requested a piece that embodied the spirit and use of the sprawling family-friendly green space. "Searches" is a large steel public sculpture that offers multiple entry-points. This inviting structure became a gathering place for music and dance performances as well as moments of quiet contemplation for park-goers of all ages.

Process

Public art, especially in parks is really the ideal place for the sculptures I want to create. I love a high level of interaction with a work. Parks are the great equalizers of our cities - you have all walks of life in a park on a given day, a thousand different backgrounds and all with unique imaginations. Museums filter people in a way that parks do not. Public art is vital to the vibrancy of any city landscape and art in our parks takes it a step further, allowing people to be around art when their guard is down, when they're free.