9. Times Square Midnight Moment

Daniel Crooks. The Subtle Knife (still). Courtesy of the artist. 

January’s Midnight Moment in Times Square was created by artist Daniel Crooks. Titled The Subtle Knife, Crook’s video work will light up the billboards of Times Square every night of the month from 11:57pm to midnight. Presented in partnership with Asia Society, The Subtle Knife marks the inaugural Asia Society Triennial, on view at select locations in New York City through June 27, 2021.

The Subtle Knife “explores the relationship between transportation and the moving image, while taking the viewer on a contemplative journey through time and space.” Crooks takes viewers on a journey through a never-ending series of train tracks as you catch glimpses of new destinations. “As with much of my work, I hope the audience is transported for a moment to a place where the world is less concrete, where the models we have in our heads of what is real become slightly less fixed, where our concepts of time become much more fluid,” Crooks says of the first Midnight Moment presentation of 2021.