3. A Signpost and a Crescent Moon Arrive at First Street Green Art Park

Artist Henry Kielmanowicz “The Space Between Us” at the First Street Park. Photo via NYC Parks

Two new installations in the First Street Green Art Park caught our eye. Henry Kielmanowicz is a sculpture artist with a focus on creating sculptures from manmade objects that enter our waste cycle everyday. In his installation “The Space Between Us,” he created a crescent-shaped moon with a new raw material made by breaking, crushing and separating glass into multiple sizes. The crescent moon sculpture sits on a steel curved frame, ten feet high above the parks mural wall. Inside the recycled glass are LED light bulbs, powered by solar panels, which give the installation a green glow at night. “The Space Between Us” will be on view through May 2016.

Also located in the First Street Green Art Park is the installation “Signpost” by Australian-based artist, Stuart Ringholt. Here, you will stop and give thought to a range of emotions that include greed, happiness, sadness, anger, lust, depression, love, sleep, envy and sadness. This public art project is in conjunction with his exhibit at OSMOS Address, 50 East 1st Street, which is in partnership with NYC Parks. We should mention that the OSMOS Address space has a storied history as a saloon frequented by radicals such as Emma Goldman, Ambrose Bierce, and many others who used the saloon as their mailing address. Goldman once called the tavern “the most famous radical center in New York.”

In 2012, the site and original owner Justus H. Schwab (1847-1900) were recognized by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation for historic significance. The tiny space measuring just eight feet wide and thirty feet deep was often targeted by the temperance movement and raided by the police.

“Signpost” by artist Stuart Ringholt at the First Street Park. Photo via NYC Parks

“Signpost” will be on view at the First Street Green Art Park through May 3, 2016. The First Street Green Park is located on Houston Street, between 2nd and 1st Avenues.