Client: HYHK

Overview

Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen presents Shadows, an installation of ten site-specific sculptured created by mixed-media artist, Fanny Allié for Bella Azbug Park (542 W 36th St., New York, NY 10018). The pieces are inspired by the workers who maintain the park, inviting people to enjoy the picturesque public green space surrounded by urban bustle. The outlines of ten park workers are depicted in positions as they might be while doing their jobs. Shadows also includes audio components, accessible with QR code, in which Allié’s subjects talk about their life experiences, family ties, stories of immigration, and relationships to the park.

Goals

The goal of the project is to emphasize the vital importance of the park and those who work to keep and maintain the patch of greenery surrounded by tall buildings and concrete. The work hopes to bring together socioeconomically diverse communities, offering dynamic spaces with public art that can prompt people to consider other lives and experiences that touch them in inconspicuous ways.

Process

Each worker chose the color of the their own sculpture best representing them.The colorful sculptures are embedded into the soil - some out in the open, others partly concealed by plants - in a circle surrounding Bella Azbug Park Block #1.

Additional Information

Allié's community-based public art projects often explore human interrelationships, collectiveness, and connection to familiar places.