Yesterday, workers were putting the finishing touches on the new series of sculptures by artist Alice Aycock on the Park Avenue Mall between 52nd Street and 57th Street. Entitled Park Avenue Paper Chase, the monumental pieces really play on the whimsicality of paper objects and the materiality of aluminum and fiberglass.
In her own words, Aycock says:
For the Park Avenue project I tried to visualize the movement of wind energy as it flowed up and down the Avenue creating random whirlpools, touching down here and there and sometimes forming dynamic three-dimensional massing of forms…As much as the sculptures are obviously placed on the mall, I wanted the work to have a random, haphazard quality – in some cases, piling up on itself, in others spinning off into the air. Much of the energy of the city is invisible. It is the energy of thought and ideas colliding and being transmitted outward. The works are the metaphorical visual residue of the energy of New York City.
Alice Aycock is also no stranger to having her work displayed in New York City. We previously covered her work along the East River Esplanade called East River Roundabout, which now looks like an abandoned roller coaster on the FDR Drive.
Park Avenue Paper Chase, a project of The Fund for Park Avenue, will be on display through July 2014. Also check out a previous NYC skyscraper-inspired series on the Park Avenue Mall by Alexandre Arrechea.
Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.