A 16-foot-tall bust of a black woman is going to inaugurate the High Line’s newest public art initiative.
The Plinth, the High Line’s newest attempt at bringing pubic art to NYC will be hosting a series of giant, commissioned artworks over the course of the year. The first will be “Brick House” by Chicago native and Brooklyn transplant, Simone Leigh.
According to the High Line website, “Simone Leigh presents a sixteen-foot-tall bronze bust of a black woman whose torso is conflated with the forms of a skirt and a clay house. The figure will stand tall and monumental atop the Plinth, gazing resolutely down 10th Avenue. Her head is crowned with an afro, framed by cornrow braids along her hairline that extend off her scalp into four braids, each ending with a cowrie shell.”
The work is set to explore themes of the intersectionality of feminism and African-American identity and will be located at the center of the plaza located on the old elevated railway at the intersection of Tenth Avenue and 33rd Street.
Featured image: thehighline.org