The Battery, at the southern tip of Manhattan, is home to a new larger-than-life sculpture. The piece, titled “The Great Debate,” is part of artist Hebru Brantley’s Flyboy series. The artist is known for creating narrative-driven art, often featuring his signature character, Flyboy. Described as “an exploration of what a superhero character of color would look like,” Flyboy can be found in comics, on murals, t-shirts, skateboards, and stickers, as well as in more traditional paint-on-canvas artworks. The 16-foot-tall statue in The Battery “features Flyboy in a stance that represents confident optimism.” The artist, Brantley, suggests, “My hope is that The Great Debate at The Battery will serve as a consistent reminder to hold your head high, stand firm in what you believe in, and keep pushing forward with confidence.”
The Immigrants
The Immigrants, a sculpture by artist Luis Sanguino, celebrates the “diversity of New York City and the immigrant experience.” Located downtown in Battery Park next to Castle Clinton, which served as a depot to welcome the growing number of immigrants to the US before processing was transferred to Ellis Island, the sculpture depicts an Eastern European Jew, a freed formerly enslaved African man, a priest, and a worker. Sanguino’s sculpture depicts the struggles that various peoples have faced as they came to America either through voluntary or forced migration.
SeaGlass Carousel
The SeaGlass Carousel, located downtown in Battery Park, pays homage to the New York Aquarium, which was previously located at this location and at one point welcomed 2.5 million visitors annually before closing in 1941. The 2,575 square foot pavilion, modeled after a nautilus, lacks the traditional center pole and is instead turned by four turntables housed below the floor. Each massive fiberglass fish was custom designed and fabricated and the bright and fantastic color-changing LED light fixtures (along with an integrated audio system) is meant to evoke the bioluminescence found deep in the ocean. The results are mesmerizing. Seriously, we could have watched it all night.