Swedish artist Hanna Liden is a fan of bagels. Couldn’t you tell from the three giant stacks of the city’s favorite breakfast food she installed this week in Greenwich Village? ‘Everything’ consists of one such centerpiece at the Ruth Wittenberg Plaza and two others at the Hudson River Park, and is presented by Art Production Fund and Kiehl’s.
Liden, who professed one of her early memories in New York was a trip to a bagel shop in the Meatpacking District, says the sculptures carved from industrial styrofoam and polyurethane were meant to be both parts nostalgia and humor. She recalls a previous photography show of hers, a series of found objects made into vases, and became intrigued by the image of a stack of bagels holding a flower in place. Sure enough, the two larger stacks of the three installations are holding up a single tulip, spray-painted black.
“I think it’s important to have humor involved if you’re going to put something on the street,” Liden said to WWD.
The woman behind the bagels began as a photographer, and already has a few solo shows at Rivington Arms and a role in the 2008 Whitney Museum Biennial under her belt. She says the bagels are meant to be touched, even climbed on, musing that public art, with its potential to be seen by far more than the regulars at any art gallery or museum, should have an element of physicality to them. In anticipation of any potential lawsuits, they are not edible.
Next, ever heard about the NYC bagel famines? read about 20 outdoor art installations not to miss this month and this past winter’s giant snow monsters in the Flatiron Plaza. Get in touch with the author @jinwoochong.
