The annual Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition is back at Socrates Sculpture Park and, as usual, the 15 artists featured created pieces that are weird, thought-provoking and even a little controversial.
The EAF is all about providing lesser-known artists with a platform to share their work and to build upon the park’s goal to present socially aware and inspiring art in a public realm.
While previous years have turned out some great works, this year’s group has more than several standouts scattered around the park’s grounds.
“Moon Lasso,” a piece by Dane Winkler, is instantly eye-catching as it stands over 25 feet high.
Winkler, who was raised on a farm in upstate New York, used materials including lumber, steel and water to create a rustic arch.
The artist combines elements from his childhood with more urban parts. The juxtaposition of the romantic and the industrial creates an unexpected feeling of nostalgia.
Throughout the exhibit opening on Sunday, children ran up and down the stairs of “Moon Lasso,” turning it into a clubhouse of sorts, which seems appropriate considering Winkler’s inspiration for the piece.
At night, the work takes on a new form with just the turning on of a lamp. The added light source shines down on the arch, hanging directly over a clear basin filled with water.
Just to the right of “Moon Lasso” stands a much more onminous piece, “SkyWatch Spider.”
The piece, created by Zaq Landsberg, is a replica of the NYPD’s SkyWatch towers — structures deployed into high-crime neighborhoods beginning in 2006 — supported by eight arachnid legs.
“SkyWatch Spider” is obviously a swipe at surveillance and public safety methods practiced by the NYPD and their “absurdity.”
“‘SkyWatch Spider’ creates a situation in which viewers must confront both the work itself — with its elements of the absurd — as well as its literal footing in reality,” a description of the piece reads.
The criticism being made by Landsberg is not a new one and — considering recent events that have led some to outwardly protest the NYPD’s methods — still effective.
Artist Christopher Mahonski loosely references the luminous wings and dark bodies of cicadas in his piece “Spurious Brood.”
His work traces the ever-evolving relationship between nature and time by installing hundreds of glowing, digital watches in all of the park’s trees.
What’s more, Mahonski has set each clock’s alarm to create a “digital symphony” that goes off every day at 4, 5 and 6 p.m.
Another popular piece was “What’s Progression,” a Fitzhugh Karol work made of raw timbers.
The sculpture is placed in such a way that it integrates the Manhattan skyline with what appears to be a tree-lined mountain range.
“What’s Progession” is a piece that pulls the viewers out of themselves and forces them to take in the city from an unusual perspective.
The artist doesn’t seem to intend to clash nature with skyscraper or look down on either environment. Instead, he celebrates both.
Other than “SkyWatch Spider,” almost all the pieces in this year’s EAF make up a strange artistic playground.
What makes it so bizarre is each piece implicitly invites young viewers to climb and play on it, and there are no signs prohibiting or encouraging that kind of engagement.
It almost creates an entirely new experience for both those climbing and those watching. The phenomena adds a layer of fun onto what can be heavy issues.
Emerging Artist Fellowship
When: daily, 10 a.m. to sunset, through March 22
Where: Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd., LIC
