Presented by The Prospect Park Alliance in partnership with arts organization BRIC and the NYC Parks Department, the new installation, titled The Need You Know It Is A Letting Light, is the work of Brooklyn-based sculptor and artist Sarah E. Brook.
The piece, made from a set of three abstract wooden sculptures, explores how identity is formed within psychic space, as well as communication between external and internal psychic space. It is the first time sculpture is presented alongside a mural at the Lena Horne Bandshell.
A striking combination or reds, yellows, and greens mimic the park’s natural beauty, providing the park with a pop of color it’s yet to see. The repurposed wooden sculptures within can be viewed as bodies supporting one another.
For Brook, sculptural abstraction is based on a commitment to creating spaces for queer, gender nonconforming, and trans folks to experiment with embodied perception. The multisensory experience represents being whole in the world, as the salvaged wooden sculptures communicate the capability of moving beyond the confines of a body and environment.
“Sarah E Brook’s bandshell installation will be the largest commission so far for the artist and, like the two installations that came before it, engages with the social and political issues of the moment. A refreshing take on identity, the piece is less of a declaration of one’s self through figuration and instead a deep desire through form to engage and open up a discussion about how one’s identity is formed, such as through society and one’s environment. Brooks’ work is quiet and introspective and, in that quietness, a real sense of possibility,” stated Jenny Gerow, Curator of the mural and Contemporary Art Curator at BRIC.
The installation first opened to the public on October 15, and will remain on view at the Lena Horne Bandshell through May 5, 2023.