“Echoes – A Voice from Uncharted Waters” by Mathias Gmachl

During one of our lunch breaks this week we came across a whale!  Internationally recognized for his work involving the “design and fabrication of ephemeral textile architecture and living environments,” Mathias Gmachl has taken over the Garment District with his fifty-five-foot art installation. “Echoes – A Voice from Uncharted Waters” features a brilliant steel whale whose cries wash ashore as we celebrate NYC Climate Week. The exhibit urges us to ponder nature's harmony and the future of our planet. It juxtaposes underwater tranquility with the jarring noise of human impact, presenting a powerful metaphor for the delicate balance we face. “Echoes” is an exhibit that embodies our role in a sustainable future, illustrating how art can inspire individuals and remind us of the responsibility we have towards our planet.

"Here" by Santi Flores

The city of New York, home to people from hundreds of different countries and cultures, takes great pride in its diversity. The Garment District, a neighborhood in midtown Manhattan, is currently home to an art installation celebrating the unique “unity, diversity, and individuality” of “New Yorkers and visitors passing through” the city. Called “Here,” the installation consists of fourteen figures standing in the pedestrian plaza with hands raised high in the air, “as if to say ‘Here we are. We are moving forward together.’” The installation is by Spanish artist Santi Flores, who created each figure out of steel and painted them with unique designs and patterns on their “skin.” The larger-than life figures are a whimsical tribute to New York and the people who live in and visit the city.

Passage in the Garment District

A new art installation is lighting up the Garment District! The interactive piece, called “Passage,” consists of twenty glowing rings that react with swirling color and sound as people pass through them. The artist, Serge Maheu, has a background in engineering, and is adept at creating artworks that use his technical skills in creative ways. This work was conceived as a meditation on the idea of transition and change, drawing on ideas of “passage in reference to the enigmatic moment between life and death.” Sponsored by the Québec Government Office in New York, the installation will only be in place for a few weeks, but in that time, it will bring color and fun to the chilly nights in midtown.

Impulse

Impulse is an interactive art installation made of twelve oversized seesaws that transform the Broadway pedestrian plazas into an urban playground. When visitors to the seesaws climb on top and move them, the seesaws glow with light and emit randomized musical sounds. Located on Broadway in the Garment District between 37th and 38th Streets, Impulse was created by Lateral Office and CS Design in collaboration with EGP Group, and first presented as part of the winter Luminothérapie light festival in Montreal. When we visited the installation over lunchtime this week, we heard a lot of happy shouts, laughter, and the sound of general merriment on the seesaws. Creos, the tour producer of the installation, says the seesaws embody “ideas of serialism, repetition, and variation to produce zones of intensity and calm” and they “animate the public space and its occupants during the cold and dreary winter.” That much is certainly true. The seesaws are on display through January 31.

Candy Nation

Candy Nation by French sculptor Laurence Jenkell is a series of oversized candies displaying flags of different countries. First exhibited for the G20 Summit in Cannes, France in 2011, Candy Nation is now installed on the Garment District malls on Broadway between 36th and 39th Street as part of Garment District Alliance’s 15th Annual Arts Festival that runs from October 18th to 20th. The nine-foot tall sculptures each weigh 1,450 pounds and are wrapped in polyester resin. Flag featured in the series are from such countries as the US, European Union (plus member countries Germany, France, and Italy), Great Britain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and many others. Barbara A. Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance, says: “Through her remarkable exhibit, Laurence Jenkell leverages both simple and universal imagery to remind New Yorkers of our global character, right at a moment when such reminders are so timely and valuable.”