Pioneering digital mixed-media artist Anne Spalter will make you look at New York City with fresh eyes. Her video piece New York Dreaming, on view at the Fulton Center subway station, transforms views of the city into a psychedelic, constantly shifting vision of geometric beauty.
“New York is a city like no other, a combination of man-made and natural formations, perpetually evolving and reinventing itself—turning from one year to the next, constantly unfolding,” noted Spalter’s artist statement for the piece.
To express that idea, Spalter has used her own custom software to create her algorithm-based imagery, which she considers a meditation on the never-ending hustle and bustle that is life in New York. The work is shown for two minutes each hour, appearing simultaneously on all of Fulton Center’s 52 video screens. The transit hub offers access to eight separate lines, and two additional lines can be reached via the Dey Street pedestrian tunnel, which is part of the art installation.
Anne Spalter, Miami Marbles at PULSE Miami Beach 2016. Courtesy of Anne Spalter Studios.
It’s a similar concept, albeit with a different feel, to Spalter’s project Miami Marbles, a hit at last year’s PULSE Miami Beach. Instead of New York skyscrapers, the artist manipulated footage from the shores of Miami Beach to create similarly colorful and trippy designs. The two-part project saw her create inflated spheres that hovered throughout the fair, as well as a mobile app that revealed the presence of additional spheres, featuring the animated footage.
Whereas the Miami work has a more flowing, swirling aesthetic, New York Dreaming has a harder edge, with the city’s strong architectural elements lending the footage a faceted, gem-like appearance.
“Anne’s kaleidoscopic digital work featuring the skyline of New York City shown in the dynamic canvas of Fulton Center complements the geometry and volume of this great public space,” said Sandra Bloodworth, director of MTA Arts & Design, which is presenting the piece, in a statement. “The juxtaposition of light, color and pattern is mesmerizing.”
Anne Spalter, Miami Marbles at PULSE Miami Beach 2016. Courtesy of Anne Spalter Studios.
New York City is having a bit of a moment in terms of digital art invading video billboards. If one walks through the Fulton Center to the connected “Oculus” World Trade Center Path Station and the Westfield World Trade Center complex, they’ll be in position to spot Hayal Pozanti’s RELENTLESS TENDERNESS, which plays across the center’s 19 LED screens at ten-second intervals, regularly interrupting a steady stream of advertising.
The piece is one of 23 newly commissioned works on view as part of the Public Art Fund’s first city-wide installation, “Commercial Break.” Celebrating the organization’s 40th anniversary, the show infiltrates video ad space in all five boroughs with works by artists including Jacolby Satterwhite, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, and Awol Erizku, who recently made headlines for his photograph announcing Beyoncé’s pregnancy.
Anne Spalter’s New York Dreaming is on view at Fulton Center, at Fulton Street and Broadway, New York, playing for two minutes at the top of each hour through spring 2017.