Art at the Edge
A Climate Art Exhibit, Produced by Waterfront Alliance
For the fifth year, Waterfront Alliance is organizing a free outdoor art exhibition in Lower Manhattan’s Seaport, harnessing the power of the creative arts to call attention to the dangers of sea level rise and the urgent need for greater resilience.
Art at the Edge is generously supported by the Seaport and by the South Street Seaport Museum.
The 2024 Art at the Edge exhibit includes three works:
- SHADOWS AT THE WATER’S EDGE, by Singha Hon & Denise Zhou
- TIDE, by Michael Krondl
- ANXIETY TOWER, by Sari Nordman
Share on Social: Tag @theseaportnyc, @seaportmuseum and @waterfrontalliance in your photos of the installations on social media for a chance to be shared using the hashtag #SeaportArts.
EVENT INFO
September 22 – October 5, 2024
Location
Pier 16
89 South Street
What’s On S+4
Artists: Singha Hon and Denise Zhou
Shadows at the Waters Edge
Shadows at the Water’s Edge” is a collection of windows into what was, and what could be, in the area we know today as the Seaport. Draped along the railings of Pier 16, haunting, speculative storytelling elements stitch together layers of colonial and capitalist violence that have amassed to lay waste to air, water, and land. Shadows invites passersby to contend with the necessity of reorienting our relationship to the natural world—severing ourselves from exploitation, ownership, and profit, and inviting collective responsibility, interconnectedness, and repair.
https://www.singhahon.com/ | Instagram: @Singha Hon
Denise Zhou is a cultural worker based in Brooklyn, New York, activating storytelling for political education, youth, and community power, and a reclamation of a people’s culture. Their work, which spans writing, film, sculpture, print, and public programming, engages with the transformation of relationships through grief, the balance of self with the collective, and possibilities of future. Her projects have been presented at Tribeca Film Institute, Brooklyn Museum, Green-Wood Cemetery, and community events across New York City.
https://dzhou.carrd.co/
Artist: Michael Krondl
Tide
The subject of Krondl’s work is our troubled relationship with the natural world, as a society and as individuals. Many of his pieces have referenced the consequences of the climate emergency, primarily focusing on the impact of water and drought.
“Tide” interjects a (virtual) tear or crevice into the center of Pier 16, so that the East River seems to be bubbling up and over the surface of the dock—as it undoubtedly will with rising sea levels. Viewers will be put into a situation of having to cross this break in time, this snapshot of the future, to physically participate with the artwork.
Michael Krondl is a Czech-born, New York-based installation artist. His site-specific pieces typically use photographs of fragments of nature or the local environment. These are then manipulated (though both digital and analog means) to create very large-scale images and, in turn, mounted on walls, billboards, screens and even floors in such a way that they transform space and architecture. Many of his works focus on environmental issues and the climate emergency.
Artist: Sari Nordman
Anxiety Tower
A fiber-arts installation, Anxiety Tower discusses the problems of single-use plastics. The tapestries in the installation are made using recycled plastic film, some of them communally-made. The project seeks to elevate public awareness of the single-use plastics problem, advocate for people to minimize their use, and consider creative recycling and repurposing solutions.
The title anxiety refers to eco-anxiety addressing humanity’s ability to invent durable and inexpensive products that can serve many in multiple ways, as well as its inability to utilize a product’s full lifecycle thus burdening nature, waterways and people. The title also refers to the calming, positive effects of fiber-arts making. The hand crafts process is slow and steady, and becomes meditative. Anxieties subside and are interwoven with the tapestries.
Sari Nordman, a Finnish interdisciplinary artist and educator, creates public art projects, video works and dance performances. Many of her projects have been informed by climate change and respond to environmental social justice issues. To amplify diverse voices from around the world her projects often involve social engagement. She engages people through interview processes, photography and fiber-arts making.
About S+3
ART AT THE EDGE
Waterfront Alliance’s Art at the Edge exhibit captures New York and New Jersey artists whose work is thematically tied to climate change and will inspire, inform, and engage the public about the urgency of the climate crisis. The exhibit gives visitors an opportunity to absorb art focused on the climate crisis, including the intersecting themes of coastal resilience, waterfront access, and the region’s maritime culture and history. Art at the Edge was launched in 2020 under the name Art at the BlueLine, and features the work of local artists for a multi-week period each year.
Waterfront Alliance
Waterfront Alliance is a U.S. based nonprofit organization with a growing coalition of more than 1,100 partners with the shared goal to bring about real change to shorelines, waterfronts, and coastlines across the Nation and in the New York-New Jersey region. Together, we build, transform, revitalize, and protect accessible waterfronts for all communities.
South Street Seaport Museum
The South Street Seaport Museum, located in the heart of the historic Seaport District, preserves and interprets the history of New York as a great port city. Founded in 1967, the Seaport Museum includes an extensive collection of works of art and artifacts, a maritime reference library, galleries, working 19th-century print shop, and a fleet of historic vessels that all work to tell the story of “Where New York Begins.”