This week, the Madison Square Park Conservancy has been in the process of installing a new outdoor sculpture exhibit by artist Teresita Fernandez. Fata Morgana will be the largest and most ambitious exhibit this park has ever seen and will consist of a 500- foot canopy of mirror-polished discs above the pathways around the Park. The installation will go up in two phases with the positioning and securing of six steel structures as Phase I. Phase II will see the securing of the mirror-polished discs onto the steel structures, acting as a reflective canopy. The entire sculpture will be completed by June 1st.
The six mirrored canopies along the pathways create an ever-changing palette of color reflected from the mirrored discs. They mirror the different grassy and gardened areas on either side of the connecting pathways and the result is a colorful seasonal display. Fernandez has beautifully utilized the foliage and light so that we can expect to see a variation of colors in the reflections from spring through summer, fall and finally the winter months. This is an installation that will change with all four seasons. The discs are arranged in a lattice-like fashion, bringing in light in a variety of shapes and forms.
While the exhibit has caused some controversy among neighbors who feel the 500 feet of canopy will block a good deal of light, the park will tell you that the installation occupies but nine percent of the park. The exhibit will run until January 10th, 2016.
Teresita Fernandez was born and raised in Miami after her parents fled Cuba in 1959 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. She is not a new artist to Madison Square Park, as her installation Bamboo Cinema was part of a group exhibit in 2001. Fernandez’s site-specific large-scale commissions have included Louis Vuitton locations in Shanghai and Paris, Amethyst Cinema at the Galerie Pfriem at SCAD, France and Blind Blue Landscape at Benesse Art site in Naoshima, Japan, and a current exchibit at MASS MoCA which ends this month.
See previous art installations at Madison Square Park and Flatiron, including the recent JR Walking Man, the Gazing Globes, and Snow Monsters.
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