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Early Addition
There is so much going on in the five boroughs of New York, so many people, so many buildings, that it can be easy to forget that, unless you are in the Bronx, you are living on an island. It's just that memory lapse that a new exhibit from the late Robert Smithson and the Whitney tries to counteract.
On September 17 a 30-by-90-foot barge filled with soil, plants and trees native to the city will set off from Staten Island. The "Floating Island" will be pulled by a little red tugboat up and down the Hudson and East River, depending on the tide, from 8am-8pm every day until October 23. Seeing a green island moving up and down the waters is supposed to make you think about your own physical location. Along with the barge, the Whitney will be showing a retrospective of Smithson's paintings, essays, photographs and videos made from 1955 until his death in 1973.
Sketch of "Floating Island" by Robert Smithson from robertsmithson.com
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The other day I was showing a couple of visiting friends around lower manhattan and we happened to be sitting at the World Financial Center looking at the boats when the Smithson exhibit floated by.
One of them said, "Um, excuse me, but is that a little park being towed around by a boat?"
I replied, "We have so little green space in the city that park theft is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. That's why all of our trees are in cages."