New York City Plans to Gain $55 Million on Waterfall Art

LibertySugar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:00:25 -0700

I'm sure I don't "get" most esteemed works of art, but I'm still undecided about whether my reaction to New York City's waterfall art project is "wow" or "huh?" Four waterfalls designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson will show around NYC until October. Three cascade into the East River and New York Harbor from scaffolding towers, while the fourth falls from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Money-wiz Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the art will create $55 million in economic activity for his city (it cost $15.5 million). In a truly American fashion, companies will offer $10 boat tours of the falls, as well as a $50,000 Waterfall Package dripping with luxuries like a private boat tour, champaign, diamonds, dinner for two, and a luxury hotel stay.

Do you find public art to be an eyesore, or a beautiful economic ~~waterfall~~ windfall for cities?

Artist of the Day: Olafur Eliasson

casasugar — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:30:49 -0700

In January, it was announced that Olafur Eliasson, an internationally acclaimed Danish-Icelandic artist, will bring a series of freestanding waterfalls to Manhattan's East River from late June through mid-October this year. The scaffolding for the 90- to 120-foot waterfalls is now being built, and the City expects tourism revenues to increase by $55 million while the project is underway. The large-scale public art has been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life by using intake pools suspended in the river to filter the water, and ConEd, the local gas and electric company, will provide electricity generated from renewable resources.
I was blown away by Eliasson's recent exhibition at the SFMOMA here in San Francisco, which featured a kaleidoscopic tunnel built on the museum's steel truss bridge and a multisensory 360 degree color room — although it kind of cracked me up thinking of Aleksandr Petrovsky's "large scale light installations." I also know that "the Weather Project," Eliasson's installation of a massive sun in London's Tate Modern, was a wild success. So I don't doubt that his waterfalls in NYC will follow suit; sounds like some waterfalls you should go chasing. If all of Manhattan's cultural events weren't already enough, this will certainly add value to the homes of all those celebrity NYC dwellers this Summer. I only wish I could have a bit of Eliasson's artwork to enjoy on a small scale in my private pad.
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New York City Plans to Gain $55 Million on Waterfall Art

Artist of the Day: Olafur Eliasson