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The Gates, this time with water
Between June 26 and October 13, you’ll be able to see a set of New York City Niagaras in the East River. An immense undertaking to get this done, Olafur Eliasson, a Berlin-based artist has worked with the Public Art Fund and more than 100 engineers, scientists, divers, riggers and environmentalists to get this off the ground. Mr. Mayor also took an interest, apparently.
As has often been the case with arts projects, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s office was eager to be involved. “The mayor is always looking for new ways to showcase New York,” said First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris. She added that several city and state agencies also played a role. “There’s never been a manual for how to put waterfalls in the East River,” she explained.
And why not? That should be item number one on the priority scale. Anyway, the waterfall spots will be:
at the eastern foot of the Brooklyn Bridge; between Piers 4 and 5 near the Brooklyn Heights Promenade; and on the north shore of Governors Island.
And you’ll be able to view all of them nicely from Pier 17, including the apparatus that makes them work.
Mr. Eliasson said he purposely left the scaffolding highly visible. “Scaffolding is not an unfamiliar structure in New York,” he said. “You see it on every construction site in the city. I want people to know that this is both a natural phenomenon and a cultural one.”
Part of the impetus for his project, he says, is the stark difference between us and urban Europeans, who do a lot more interacting with their water.
Throughout history, he said, New Yorkers “have always taken water for granted.” He added: “Now people can engage in something as epic as a waterfall, see the wind and feel its gravity. You realize that the East River is not just static.”
I think we realize a hell of a lot more than that about the East River.
That said, at the very least, I can appreciate two things here. 1) There is no city money going toward the project. 2) Eliasson is very casual about it. There will be no big opening event, as there was with Christo’s Gates.
“It’s important to be very straightforward and not to overamplify or overmystify things,” Mr. Eliasson said. “The waterfalls will just be turned on in the morning, and that’s it.”
Bernstein Photography, Courtesy Public Art Fund
