Michael Sailstorfer’s “Tornado” welcomes visitors to Central Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Scholars’ Gate, Doris C. Freedman Plaza
Central Park entrance, 60th St. & Fifth Ave.
Extended through April 1
646-862-0933
www.publicartfund.org
tornado slideshow
Berlin-based multidisciplinary installation artist Michael Sailstorfer creates scenarios that appear to be trapped in time, with a mysterious past and an uncertain future. Such works as “1 zu 43 bis 47,” in which a broken popcorn stand has left food on the floor, and “Forest Cleaning,” a collaboration with Alfred Kurz in which a rectangular forest area has been shorn of its greenery, pose questions about physical space and the surrounding environment as well as life and death. For “Knots Like Clouds” in 2010, Sailstorfer repurposed truck tire inner tubes, which are associated with motion, by twisting them together and hanging them from gallery ceilings, ominous black clouds threatening just overhead. For his first U.S. commission, Sailstorfer has brought together dozens of these black clouds and placed them on a narrow, angled base for the site-specific installation “Tornado.” Rising more than thirty feet high at the Scholars’ Gate entrance to Central Park by the Plaza, “Tornado” evokes the trees around it as well as the taxis, buses, and trucks that zoom past all day long, once again melding physical space and its environment. In heavier winds, the piece shifts ever so slightly, suddenly bringing these urban materials to life, if only for a few seconds. Although it has a weightless appearance — it is, of course, filled with air — closer inspection reveals the metal rods and wires holding it in place, not allowing this playful storm system to wield its damage on an unsuspecting city.