Plastic Fantastic! by Capucine Bourcart

Last year, New York enacted a law banning single-use plastic bags in an attempt to reduce waste and pollution in a state where over 23 billion plastic bags have typically been used every year. Artist Capucine Bourcart has long been fascinated with single-use plastic bags as a symbol of both waste and consumerism. Her newest work, “Plastic Fantastic!,” on display in Harlem Art Park, is a large-scale consideration of these items. Consisting of about 1600 small pieces of colorful aluminum sheeting, the work spans 66 feet across one side of the small park. Each piece is printed with a close-up image of a plastic bag, which the artist collected from friends and neighbors over several years. The colored blocks are woven into the existing metal trellis in the park, creating a rainbow gradient that catches your eye immediately. The wide span of the work illustrates the far-reaching effects of single-use plastics on the environment. Bourcart seems to ask, now that plastic bags are banned in New York, how much of this environmental harm will be mitigated?

London Landmarks

Sometimes, when you are familiar with a place, you can forget to appreciate its most unique facets. Playing tourist in a city you know well is a fun way to see places like this in a new light. London’s Tower Bridge, for example, is a functioning bridge that people drive over every day, so it is easy to forget its long and rich history, and its status as an iconic landmark. But in taking the time to look at it in the way that someone who has never seen it might, you remember how remarkable it is. The gorgeous bridge took 8 years to build and is well over a century old, but it looks bright and modern when it’s lit up at night. Nearby, the historic Tower of London sits in stark contrast to the sleek, sparkling buildings of the financial district. These ultra-modern skyscrapers and the people who live and work nearby share space with a centuries-old castle that has housed royalty, prisoners, and maybe even ghosts. It’s a fitting place to play tourist, especially now that the Halloween season is here!

Eros in London

Anyone who has ever visited London’s Piccadilly Circus is familiar with the winged statue of Eros, the mischievous Greek god of love, who watches over the popular public space. The statue, designed by English sculptor Alfred Gilbert, sits atop the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, a tribute to the politician and philanthropist, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. A statue of the god of sensual love seems a strange tribute to such a sober figure. And it would be, because the statue is actually (probably) meant to depict Eros’ brother, Anteros, the god of requited love. Gilbert described Anteros as representative of “reflective and mature love, as opposed to Eros or Cupid, the frivolous tyrant.” Interestingly, the true identity of the figure is a subject of significant debate. Some will claim that Gilbert only called the statue Anteros after receiving criticism from Victorian moralists, scandalized by a nude sculpture displayed in public. In fact, it is due to these very critics that the statue has a third name: “The Angel of Christian Charity.” No matter what you call it, the beautiful statue is an iconic fixture of Piccadilly Circus.

Ghost Forest by Maya Lin

As climate change causes rising sea levels, warmer winters, and unpredictable weather, our forests are paying the price. Once-vibrant stretches of woodland are becoming what is known as “ghost forests,” as the trees die, rotted by salt water or infested with insects, but remain standing. When this happens, the delicate ecosystems that depend on the trees are destroyed, leaving these areas devoid of the normal life that should fill them. Maya Lin, an artist and architect with an interest in environmental issues, has brought a haunting ghost forest to the urban landscape of Manhattan. At the center of Madison Square Park is a stand of 50 dead white cedar trees installed by the artist and her team. The trees are from New Jersey’s Pine Barrens and were killed by an inundation of salt water from a nearby river. As Lin puts it, “each tree is a monument to climate change.” The installation brings the devastating effects of the current crisis to the heart of a city that can seem removed from nature, creating a dramatic and haunting experience for visitors to the park.

A note: the artist will offset the carbon used in installing the work by planting 1000 trees around the city. Over ten years, the carbon emissions will be offset by a factor of ten.

CowParade

New York has become a pasture for cows! Not real cows, of course, but 78 unique fiberglass cows are on view throughout New York City. Each of the cows is painted and transformed by a wide array of artists, “from contemporary art icons to well-known Wynwood graffiti artists to eclectic designers and celebrity supporters.” We found a few of the cows around the city, including “Dairy-go-Round” designed by actor Neil Patrick Harris, “Flora, the Sustainable Cow Planter” by Brian McCarthy, “E Pluribus Unum” by Yannick Lowery, “Moo York Summer Celebration” by Billy the Artist, “Creature Cow Alliance” by Danny Cole, and “CLEAR Constellations” by Chris Sainato. At the end of the exhibition, each of the cows will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the meal delivery service God’s Love We Deliver, which serves medically-tailored meals to sick or otherwise homebound New Yorkers. CowParade, the organization that put together this herd, has held similar events in over 80 cities around the world over more than 20 years. This is the first time the cows have been in New York since 2000.