Year-round public art initiative Art at Amtrak is displaying its newest installation of art, showcasing multimedia artist and educator Marisa Morán Jahn’s work Re/Connections, which takes a deeper look at our interconnection relationship with water.
The new installation proceeds work from local artists Shoshanna Weinberger and David Rios Ferreira in Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall. Onlookers can find it along Manhattan’s West Side Highway at Block 675 Fence, 30th Street.
Jahn’s piece takes after papercut art forms from China and Meso-America “where the punctures are said to let the past through.” The holes and mesh material act as portals and passageways between her Chinese and Ecuadorian descent.
The installation site is where a new rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey will be constructed by Amtrak and the Gateway Development Commission, a place that once was a former trading route and source of nourishment for animals and humans. Re/Connections questions the evolution and metamorphic nature of trade routes and transportation.
“Our stewardship of public resources like water, railways and civic space are critical to how communities thrive and strengthen resilience,” says Jahn.
Jahn has an impressive portfolio, reaching audiences by the millions via the United Nations, Tribeca Film Festival, Obama’s White House, Venice Biennale of Architecture and through media coverage in the BBC, CNN, PBS Newshour, The New York Times, Univision Global and so on. She’s not only a Sundance and Creative Capital grantee but an artist in residence at The National Public Housing Museum and the Director of Integrated Design at Parsons/The New School.
Find out more about Jahn and Re/Connections for Art at Amtrak here.