The art in Socrates Sculpture Park will be activated with special programs on July 9 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Who: Woomin Kim, Greg Hammontree, Douglas Paulson and Nicole Brancato, Rudy Walker Ensemble, Cooper-Moore, Ununu, Elliott Sharp, Duology, more
What: Jazz Foundation of America presentation for Second Saturdays
Where: Socrates Sculpture Park, 32-01 Vernon Blvd. at Broadway, Long Island City
When: Saturday, July 9, free, 9:30 am – 8:00 pm
Why: Socrates Sculpture Park and the Jazz Foundation of America have teamed up for a special day of live music, workshops, and more on July 9, activating the historic park and its current art installations. There will be yoga at 9:30 and 11:00 in the morning; from 10:00 to 2:00, the Hellgate Farm Stand will be open, and the Astoria Food Pantry will distribute free clothes, books, and essential items and collect nonperishables and clean clothing; at 11:00, Field Guide: Wildlife Among Us — Finding Shelter will take preregistered participants on a tour of the park, focusing on where animals and insects make their home; and at noon, artist Woomin Kim, whose “Shijang Project” quilts are at Susan Inglett Gallery in Chelsea until July 29, will lead a collage workshop with Noguchi Museum educators. In addition, Greg Hammontree’s ambient soundworld Trumpet Echoes will ring out all day in the Grove of Trees, where you can walk through the adaptive sonic space.
The afternoon will include live thirty-to-forty-five-minute concerts, featuring part I of .soundfullness by Douglas Paulson and pianist Nicole Brancato at the front gate BBQ area at 2:00, the Rudy Walker Ensemble at the Cobblestone Stage at 3:00, pianist Cooper-Moore inside Hélio Oiticica’s Subterranean Tropicália Projects PN15 at 4:00, improv trio Ununu at the North Gate Stage and part II of .soundfullness at the front gate BBQ area at 5:00, the legendary Elliott Sharp playing “Monkulations” on acoustic guitar in Oiticica’s installation at 6:00, and Michael Marcus’s Duology at the Main Stage at 7:00.
As you enter the park, you encounter the Broadway Billboard The Marooned Picturesque Series (Socrates) by New York City native Joiri Minaya, which was selected by the Socrateens. On view through August 14, Oiticica’s Subterranean Tropicália Projects PN15 is an immersive circular environment of an unrealized work by the late Brazilian artist and activist Oiticica, who was honored with a terrific exhibition at the Whitney in 2017, “To Organize Delirium.” Originally conceived for Central Park, the piece is now centered at Socrates, where visitors can follow narrow, winding paths to surprise places; facing the front of the park is a small platform and screen behind mesh, where live performances and screenings are held. Sharp and Cooper-Moore will play inside on July 9; on August 14, the closing reception is highlighted by “We are one only heart, one only earth, one only soul,” an invitation to the public by Brazilian Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa to learn about the violence the Yanomami people are facing at the hands of the Brazilian government.
In the Grove of Trees, where you can hear Trumpet Echoes, you will find Maren Hassinger’s Two Bushes, a new pair of sculptures made of iron wire hiding in plain sight among the natural elements of the park, harkening back to Hassinger’s Three Bushes, which were part of the 1988 group exhibition “Sculptors Working” at Socrates. The New York–based artist has also installed “Steel Bodies” throughout the park, consisting of ten steel sculptures inspired by different types of vessels throughout history; some of them resemble open cages, which you can walk into, offering a unique perspective on your relationship to the people and nature around you, while their placement, and the shadows they create, interacts dramatically with the surrounding trees, skyscape, and outdoor studio of Socrates cofounder Mark di Suvero. [To see all the artwork in the park, go here.]