PREVIOUS ARTICLE
This past Saturday, Toby and I biked over to a new art installation featuring playful benches, fun fountains and a mirror maze. Danish artist Jeppe Hein created the exhibit, Please Touch the Art, which is peppered through Brooklyn Bridge Park. Here are a few photos, if you’d like to see…
We first went to the Mirror Labyrinth. It was a trip to walk through it. Hein, who was there to celebrate the launch, told the crowd that he created the installation to help strangers interact — to strike up a conversation, or even just smile or gesture. Since the art is so playful, he explained, people loosen up and don’t feel as self-conscious. I loved that concept of social connection — and it really worked. Everyone was laughing and acting like a big kid.
Then we headed to Appearing Rooms, a fountain that creates four “rooms” of shooting water. The walls take turns turning on and off every ten seconds or so, and, if you time it correctly, you can run into the fountain without getting wet. But you never know exactly when it will turn back on, so you might get splashed (or “sprinked,” as Toby would say).
Everyone was shrieking and laughing as the water rose and fell. The kids, needless to say, were going ape. It was hilarious and nerve-wracking to watch men in pressed suits and women in silk dresses walk into the fountain and try their best not to get wet.
Finally, we played on the Modified Social Benches, which are scattered around the park. Some look like curvy slides, some have seats facing each other, one is even built around a tree. They’re bright red and look beautiful on the green grass, especially as the sun is setting.
If you’d like to visit, here’s a map (click “explore the exhibition”), and the show will stay up until April 17th, 2016. It’s really fun, I’d definitely recommend it!
P.S. swings, lost love and getting engaged to Prince William.
(Photos by Nicki Sebastian for Public Art Fund, except evening bench photo by KiKu Llama/Instagram and overhead water photo courtesy Jon Spence, Johann König and 303 Gallery, via The New York Times)
