Reading the Streets: Hudson River Park

‘The Apple’ by Stephan Weiss, New York. Photo by Garrett Ziegler via newyork.cbslocal.com.

NEW YORK – Hudson River Park is a work of art in itself, a transformation of an industrial waterfront into a beautiful city park, but it’s also home to a variety of public art installations. Some pieces play tribute to the neighborhood’s history, others to the city as a whole.

Stephan Weiss’s The Apple, nestled in the grass on Pier 46 near Charles Street, looks particularly inviting on the sunniest days, when its 3-ton, 9-foot-tall bronze body shimmers, setting a goal for the fields of sun bathers nearby. It’s center is hollow, which on one recent visit, allowed two kids to challenge each other to a race through it, like worms in an actual apple.

Another kid favorite is Twister, a section of the three part Serpentine Structures by Mark Gibian near Watts Street in Tribeca. Its winding, torqued steel was meant to mimic the gentle waves of the nearby river. It reminds me even more of the body of a roller coaster, which may explain the excitement of the kids who can often be seen climbing on it.

My personal favorite is not officially a sculpture at all, though there are plans to add artistic touches to it. The wooden pilings near Pier 40, once the supporters of a now vanished pier, sit half-submerged in the river looking out toward New Jersey, remnants of a grittier past. Though they look like a field that time forgot, they actually are key components of the park’s estuarine sanctuary, making the waters more inviting for various fish and other invertebrates.

Of course, I’m not the only one who thought the Pier 42 pilings were ripe for artistic intervention. The Hudson River Pilings Project is planning to bring sculptor Joan Benefiel’s colorful resin figures to the pilings, pending funding. Meanwhile, the sculptures have been traveling to art fairs and exhibitions around the country. Hopefully they’ll soon be in their intended home.