“Outside Time” A Sculpture Made to Alleviate Stress at JFK Airport’s Terminal 4

A little more than 10 months after the official opening of the only non-airline, privately owned terminal at JFK International Airport, Bulgarian-American visual artist Dimitar Lukanov unveiled Outside Time. The first of three commissioned art sculptures planned for JFK’s Terminal 4, it is the latest addition to the terminal’s extensive renovation project.

The renovations began last year to accommodate the millions of passengers the terminal accommodates daily. Ed Midgley, director of concession management for JFKIA told the Daily News that the reason for the sculpture’s place in the Departures Hall of Terminal 4 is “to have something for people to look at, that would alleviates some of the stress.” As busy at JFK can be at times, it is almost impossible not to notice the giant sculpture. It is 15 feet high and 30 feet wide, built using 1,000 feet of steel and aluminum tubing, with 90% of the sculpture actually air-borne.

The artist calls the sculpture “a breathless, effortless, instantaneous gesture of air,” and writes, “The piece aspires to halt, even momentarily, the relentlessness of time, to be Outside Time.” It is not difficult to understand what he means when he calls the sculpture a “gesture of air,” since it seems to be flying away from its base, resembling the many planes that fly in and out of JFK every day.

So if you are stressed out about making it to your flight on time, or your flight is delayed and the line at Shack Shack is too long, or perhaps that drink at the new rooftop lounge did nothing to calm your nerves about flying, just take a second or two to become overwhelmed by this sculpture, see if it can make the airport’s craziness a little more

tolerable.Contact @TatteredFedora and let him know where you are headed off to after seeing the newest work by Dimitar Lukanov.