Mel Chin's “Wake” and “Unmoored” Unveiled in Times Square
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Times Square Arts in collaboration with Queens Museum and No Longer Empty is showcasing Mel Chin’s large-scale sculpture “Wake” and mixed reality public art project “Unmoored” — developed with Microsoft — to explore a surrealistic experience ofMel Chin's “Wake” and “Unmoored” Unveiled in Times Square
Times Square Arts in collaboration with Queens Museum and No Longer Empty is showcasing Mel Chin’s large-scale sculpture “Wake” and mixed reality public art project “Unmoored” — developed with Microsoft — to explore a surrealistic experience of rising waters in Times Square. The works are on view through September 5 as part of “Mel Chin: All Over the Place.”Commissioned by Times Square Arts, “Wake” is a 24-foot-tall installation that evokes the hull of a shipwreck crossed with the skeletal remains of a marine mammal.The structure is linked with a carved, 21-foot tall animatronic female sculpture, accurately derived from a figurehead of the opera star Jenny Lind that was once mounted on the 19th century clipper ship — the USS Nightingale.For Mel Chin, the USS Nightingale crystallizes the ways in which the expanding economies of the past are prologue to our current societal and environmental dilemmas.The USS Nightingale was a 19th century expedition and merchant clipper ship that exemplifies New York City’s economic triumphs and the darker layers of its history. It transported coal, cotton, munitions and tea, and was employed as a slaving vessel before being commandeered into service by the US Navy during the American Civil War.The figurehead of Jenny Lind, a 19th century opera star known as the “Swedish Nightingale,” once graced the prows of many ships in New York Harbor, including the USS Nightingale.“Wake” has been fabricated by the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s STEAM Studio, and is a collaboration between the Engineering and Art & Art History, and Drama Departments with assistance from faculty, staff, other students, and community members, all under the direction of Mel Chin Studio.Viewers can look up at the sky through phone for “Unmoored”: an ambitious 21st century mixed-reality public art project that explores a potential future where global warming has gone unchecked.The exhibition spans nearly four decades of Chin’s wide-ranging artistic practice — at sites including the Queens Museum, Times Square, the Broadway-Lafayette subway station, and streaming online with soundtrack — creating an infinite loop of the artist’s thinking about our world and how we choose to occupy it.“Mel Chin: All Over the Place,” including “Wake” and “Unmoored,” received lead support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Ford Foundation, Agnes Gund, Ann & James Harithas, and Ellen & Bill Taubman, with additional support from Sarah Arison, Surdna Foundation, Suzanne Deal Booth, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Annette Blum, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Red Bull Arts New York, and Jaros, Baum & Bolles.http://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more