Last month a 25-foot-tall bright red tree sprouted on the High Line, resembling something out of a story book. Though the sculpture won’t be on display forever–it will stand tall through September 2024–there’s way more artwork where that came from.
And we’re getting a sneak peak at the proposals for the fifth and sixth High Line Art Plinth commissions!
49 artists from 31 countries submitted proposals to High Line Art to potentially be installed in 2026 and 2027.
56 artworks have been proposed, including everything from a horn sculpture and a cedar totem to suspended canoes made from plastic water bottles and a larger-than-life mammoth. There’s even a fifteen-foot-tall “cat demon,” so to say you’re going to want to take a look at the proposals is an understatement.
And the best part–us New Yorkers have a say in which artworks get chosen to beautify the High Line!
Public feedback received now through August 25, 2023 will be shared with High Line Art’s curatorial team to help them decide who to select for the shortlist of artists who will move to the next stage of the proposal process, which will be selected this fall.
Here’s a glance at some of the proposed installations:
Camille Henrot – Just Began, About to End
Just Began, About To End is a bronze sculpture of a barn owl. This owl is seen observing the flow of traffic and passersby and reminds us of our past, and perhaps asks us to contemplate the fractures and schisms that compose our daily lives.
Natalie Ball – ho’winna
ho’winna means “I change you, you change me” in the Klamath language. The sculpture depicts a mother and three children that’s meant to invoke climate justice by celebrating the community of the Klamath Tribes who continue to fight against the extinction of the c’waam and koptu.
Candice Lin – Cat-Demon Protector
This fifteen-foot “cat demon” sculpture–whose head rotates at high speed to mark the beginning of each hour of the day–is embedded with speakers that instruct visitors to move through different qi gong exercises, thus creating a living public sculpture.
Gala Porras-Kim – Future spaces replicate earlier spaces
Future spaces replicate earlier spaces is a sculpture of an enlarged Strombid conch with a speaker inside that plays either an ancient song or poem about home and the sea. The exterior of the sculpture is carved with a decoration inspired by Mayan conch carving.
Marianne Nicolson – In Hindsight
In Hindsight reverses the dominant cultural practice in North America of representing Indigenous culture and individuals through a European gaze. In this sculpture it is instead the Indigenous gaze that depicts the European or American.
To share feedback and view the full list of proposals, head to the High Line’s website here.
Located on the High Line at 30th Street and 10th Avenue and visible from the street, the High Line Plinth is a destination for public art designed as the focal point of the Spur, the newest section of the High Line. The first two commissions were initiated in 2016.
We can’t wait to see which artworks spring up next!