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Podcasting
Conversations with Artists is a podcast series across 2024, the twentieth anniversary year of our public art program. Beginning on January 24, listen on the third Wednesday of each month to twelve artists who reflect on their work in the park, consider experiences with communities of viewers, recognize democratic ideals as central to civic space, and offer guidance to future artists on the significance of a commission in Madison Square Park.
To listen to this podcast series, scroll down and select the conversation of your choice, or listen here on Spotify.
Antony Gormley
April, 2024
Antony Gormley (British, b. 1950) was born in London, where he continues to live and work. He enrolled at Trinity College (1968), and studied at Central School of Art, Goldsmiths College and Slade School of Fine Art (1979).
Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon, which was on view in and around Madison Square Park from April – May 2010, consisted of thirty-one life-sized self portraits cast in iron and fiberglass are installed on the sidewalks and across the parapets of skyscrapers in and around the park. Gormley discusses how sculpture can free us from daily patterns and automatic responses to the world we inhabit.
Teresita Fernández
March, 2024
Teresita Fernández (American, b. 1961) was born in Miami and lives and works in Brooklyn. She earned a BFA from Florida International University (1990), and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (1992).
Teresita Fernández’ Fata Morgana, which was on view in Madison Square Park from June 2015 – January 2016, consisted of 500 running feet of golden, mirror-polished discs that created canopies above the pathways around the park’s central Oval Lawn. In nature, a fata morgana is a mirage that forms across the horizon line. Alluding to this phenomenon, Fernández’s project introduced a shimmering horizontal element that engaged visitors in a dynamic experience.
Abigail DeVille
February, 2024
Abigail DeVille (American, b. 1981) was born in New York and works in the Bronx. She received a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology (2007), attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (2007), and received an MFA from Yale University (2011).
Abigail DeVille’s, Light of Freedom, which was on view in Madison Square Park in 2020 – 2021, answers the question of how public art can respond in civic space to pandemic, protests, and political turmoil. Her work carries cogent symbols. She fills a torch — referring to the Statue of Liberty’s hand holding a torch which was on view in Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882 — with a timeworn bell, a herald of freedom, and with the arms of mannequins, reaching to viewers.
Diana Al-Hadid
January, 2024
Diana Al-Hadid (American, b.1981) was born in Aleppo, Syria and lives and works in Brooklyn. She earned a BFA and BA from Kent State University (2003), and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (2005).
In Diana Al-Hadid’s 2018 exhibition, Delirious Matter, six female figures — the freestanding 14-feet high walls titled The Grotto and Gradiva; a conical work, Citadel; and three figures called Synonym — communed as they faced the central Oval Lawn and formed a kinship of women throughout the history of art and on site in the park. Their synergy and the artist’s observation of the unexpected prompt the framework of Delirious Matter. The organic plan of park walkways, distinctly opposed to the geometric grid of Manhattan streets, confirms Al-Hadid’s idea of delirium, or a restless excitement that grips individuals.
Stay tuned for future artist conversations with Brooke Kamin Rapaport,
Artistic Director and Martin Friedman Chief Curator.
Upcoming:
Abigail DeVille | February
Teresita Fernández | March
Antony Gormley | April
Hugh Hayden | May
Cristina Iglesias | June
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer | July
Josiah McElheny | August
Shahzia Sikander | September
Alison Saar | October
Leo Villareal | November
Krzysztof Wodiczko | December
