If you find yourself passing through Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets, you’ll see an unconventional construction made of rubber tires taking up the pedestrian plaza.
The artwork, titled Shaved Portions is the newest installation from the public art program, known as Garment District Art on the Plazas. The year-round initiative is a joint effort between The Garment District Alliance and the NYC DOT’s Art Program, Arterventions.
Towering 35 feet tall, Shaved Portions was created by sculptor, painter, and photographer, Chakaia Booker. Deconstructed tires taken from auto repair shops, city streets and dumps are Booker’s signature material that she used in this installation. Through its repurposed material and configuration, Booker defined the sculpture to be “about beauty, rhythm, and a common humanity. It is about how we create to connect to one another,” she said.
The piece also touches upon racial and financial inequities—a common theme of Booker’s work. Apparently the rubbers variety in color represents diversity in humans. And if you get a closer look, the treads in the tire imitate textile designs and African scarification.
Shaved Portions will be on view now through November 1, 2024. The installation was commissioned for the Oklahoma Center for Contemporary Art and was previously on view at Washington University in 2021.