Tomoaki Suzuki’s “Carson” is one of six miniature installations that make up “Lilliput” on the High Line (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The High Line
Gansevoort St. to West Thirtieth St.
Through April 1, free (“Lying Figure” through March 14)
212-381-9349
www.thehighline.org
lilliput slideshow
The High Line has been big news since the first section of the renovated railway opened as a beautiful park in June 2009, and it has been getting bigger ever since, with section 2 having been unveiled in June 2011 and section 3 coming soon. But right now the High Line is also going small, with the art exhibition “Lilliput.” The park, which itself is a kind of urban fantasy world, has taken a page out of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and commissioned six artists from around the world to create miniature works that have been scattered between Gansevoort and West Thirtieth St. Starting at the south end, Italian-born, LA-based artist Alessandro Pessoli’s “Old Singer with Blossoms” is a Giacometti-esque figure with a tiny head wearing a long, knitted cap, serving as a scarecrow among the trees and plants. At West Fourteenth St., Japanese sculptor Tomoaki Suzuki has created “Carson,” a two-foot-tall punk rocker with white hair, dressed in all black, including a New York Dolls T-shirt, standing on the rocks in between the tracks. Just south of Twenty-Third St., New Zealand-born, UK-based Francis Upritchard’s “The Seduction” consists of a pair of small bronze monkeys coming together at the end of the wooden platform overlooking a grassy section. At Twenty-Third St., New York-based Allyson Vieira’s “Construction (Rampart)” is made up of a pyramid of bronze cups piled in a corner, collecting rainwater and debris as the seasons change and the weather affects it. At Twenty-Seventh St., Brazilian artist Erika Verzutti has gone prehistoric with a family of abstract dinosaurs hidden among the sumac and magnolias: “Dino Abacate, Dino Tropical, Dino Pot, and Dino.” And at Thirtieth St., Berlin-based, Austrian-born Oliver Laric has installed the two-faced “Sun Tzu Janus,” evoking war and peace, East and West, beginning and end. As a bonus, the High Line has added its very own Gulliver in the form of UK-born, LA-based Thomas Houseago’s giant, reclining “Lying Figure.” As a whole, “Lilliput” challenges the idea that public sculpture has to be of monumental scale; here, even Houseago’s fifteen-foot-long bronze is not standing tall but stretched out on the ground, nearly hidden by grasses and plants. So part of the fun is finding the works in the first place. “Lying Figure” will remain on view through March 14, while the six miniatures will be up through April 1. The High Line is also currently featuring El Anatsui’s “Broken Bridge II,” Virginia Overton’s “Untitled” piece in the stacked parking lot at Twentieth St., and Spencer Finch’s “The River That Flows Both Ways.”