Times Square Arts, the public art division of the Times Square Alliance, presents the new Summer Arts Programming schedule. As part of the Alliance’s commitment to showcasing the best of contemporary art, this year’s lineup includes works from Lars Jan / Early Morning Opera, Aman Mojadidi, Anne Carson + Amy Khoshbin, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Joshua Frankel, Alex Prager, Sun Xun and MSHR.
Partners will also include World Science Festival, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Municipal Art Society, The Broadway League, Lehmann Maupin, House of Trees, the Audemars Pigeut Art Commission and Upfor Gallery.
All events are free and open to the public.
June 1-3
Holoscenes
Artist: Lars Jan / Early Morning Opera
In partnership with World Science Festival
46th/47th Streets Broadway Plaza
6:00PM-11:00PM
Created by the artist Lars Jan, Holoscenes is an epic performance-installation that connects everyday actions to climate change. Born out of the widely-shared concern that the worldwide impact of water—from rising seas, melting glaciers, intensifying floods, and extended droughts—will be a defining issue of the 21st century, Holoscenes takes place in a twelve-ton glass aquarium which, over the course of five hours each day, periodically floods and drains, requiring a rotating cast of performers to continually respond to changing water levels. This is a part of the 10th anniversary season of the World Science Festival, and is produced by MAPP International Productions.
June 27-September 5
Once Upon a Place
Artist: Aman Mojadidi
Duffy Square
Audiences are invited to step into repurposed telephone booths, pick up the receiver and listen to personal stories of immigration straight from the New Yorkers who lived them. Once Upon a Place was commissioned by and created in residence with Times Square Arts.
July 12 & Ongoing
Compass Song
Artist: Mendi + Keith Obadike
Digital App
Commissioned by and created in residence with Times Square Arts, this app-based digital sound installation uses original music and spoken text inspired by the spiritual “Walk With Me” to provide pedestrians with a sonic compass to navigate the Crossroads of the World. The release of the app wil be celebrated on July 12th with an 11am ambulatory musical performance tracing the cardinal directions.
August & Ongoing
Word on the Street
Artist: Anne Carson + Amy Khoshbin
In Partnership with House of Trees
Times Square Street Pole Banners and Other Signage
Notable artists and writers collaborate to address the urgent and timeless concerns of the individual, the community and the requirements of citizenship through banners and signage in the streets of Times Square.
MIDNIGHT MOMENT
Midnight Moment is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to Midnight. Presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and curated by Times Square Arts since 2012, it has an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million. For more information, visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/midnightmoment
May 1 – 31
I LIVE HERE, Animation from "A Marvelous Order"
Artist: Joshua Frankel
In Partnership with LMCC’s River to River Festival, June 14-25 and The Municipal Art Society’s Jane’s Walk Festival, May 5-7
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
In the mid-20th century, urban theorist and activist Jane Jacobs took on Robert Moses, the Master Builder behind most of New York City’s bridges, highways, housing projects, parks, zoos and public swimming pools, in a battle over the fate of lower Manhattan and New York City as a whole – one that is still relevant today. Joshua Frankel brings that battle to visual life with animation, creating a collage of photographs and film footage, computer-generated imagery, libretto fragments, and blueprints for Moses’ proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway to illustrate the epic structures, millions of people, grassroots protest, and abstract urban theories involved in the conflict. Excerpted from the forthcoming multimedia opera A Marvelous Order, I LIVE HERE travels through the city, speeding by the buildings that would have been demolished by the Lower Manhattan Expressway, watching the infinite drips of air conditioners or the growth of shadows across a street, and unfurling change like rolls of sod across empty spaces. The result examines preservation, “progress,” and the very human conflict that grew out of themes that are right at home in Times Square.
June 1 – 30
Applause
Artist: Alex Prager
In Partnership with The Broadway League and Lehmann Maupin
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Alex Prager’s Applause depicts the underlying tension between a performer and audience, continuing Prager’s psychological examination of the human condition and the complex dynamics that exist between the individual and the crowd. By inserting the viewer in the role of performer, looking out on the audience who are applauding on an eerily endless loop, Prager exposes the heightened emotional effect of the two opposing viewpoints. In partnership with The Broadway League & Lehmann Maupin.
July 1 – 30
Time Spy
Artist: Sun Xun
In Partnership with the Audemars Pigeut Art Commission
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
This 3D animated film, realized frame by frame with hand-carved woodcuts, is a meditation on time, cosmology, and personal history. Watch with free 3D glasses distributed on Duffy Square on select nights throughout the month.
August 1 – 31
Convolution Weave~Lattice Domain
Artist: MSHR
In Partnership with Upfor Gallery
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Presented with Upfor Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Past Skin at MoMA PS1. Virtual, psychedelic sculptures vibrate and spin within the sensory overload of Times Square’s complex digitized environment.
ONGOING
JUNGLE-IZED: A Conversation with Nature
Artist: Soundwalk Collective & David Rothschild
In Partnership with Audio Technica
An interactive audio art installation that transports visitors of Times Square to the heart of the Amazon, following the 73rd Meridian West that connects Times Square with the Amazon rainforest. This immersive, participatory audio experience encourages and celebrates a conversation with nature to bring a heightened awareness around climate change and the environmental impact of our everyday actions.
XXX TIMES SQUARE WITH LOVE
Artist: Juergen Mayer H./J.MAYER.H and Partners
Broadway Plazas
Three X-shaped outdoor loungers custom designed for Times Square, each of which accommodates up to four people who could literally lie back, stare up and send a snapshot of either themselves or the mix of signs and sky above them. Originally inspired by the "X"-like intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue that forms Times Square, the loungers were the first specially-commissioned ongoing street furniture for the new Times Square plazas.
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Times Square Arts projects are supported in part by the Times Square Advertising Coalition; The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; The Stavros Niarchos Foundation; by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Visit TimesSquareNYC.org/Arts for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts.