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Artist to create 4 waterfalls on Manhattan's doorstep
Last Updated: Monday, January 14, 2008 | 3:13 PM ET
CBC News
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson will create four giant waterfalls in the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn this summer in a public art project commissioned by the City of New York.
New York City Waterfalls is being compared to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates, the series of orange fabric-draped gates in Central Park that drew an estimated four million people to the city.
Eliasson plans to build frames 27 to 37 metres high to create the waterfalls at four locations in the river near the southern tip of Manhattan. One will be at the base of the landmark Brooklyn Bridge.
Niagara Falls, which is 660 kilometres away from New York, is 51 metres high.
Pumps will direct water from the river up and over New York City Waterfalls.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to officially announce the project, backed by the Public Art Fund, on Tuesday.
However, plans have been leaked to the New York press, with some newspapers reporting the project could cost $9 million.
The city's plans include creating a guide of where to see the waterfalls and potential land and boat tours.
Eliasson, 40, is an contemporary artist with an international reputation who has represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale.
In 2003-04, he created The Weather Project for the Tate Modern in London, filling its Turbine Hall with replicas of the sun and sky, a mist machine and a huge mirror on the ceiling that reflected passers-by below.
In a 2000 work called Green River, he poured nontoxic dye into a river in Stockholm, turning it green.
He is known for art that evokes sensory experiences for the public.
Eliasson works out of 15,000-square-foot studio in a former train depot in East Berlin and employs about 40 people, including mathematicians, technicians, lighting designers and architects, to create his works.
The Museum of Modern Art plans a retrospective of Eliasson's art, called Take Your Time, running April to June. The exhibit, now on view in San Francisco, is the first North American retrospective of Eliasson.
The City of New York is estimating the waterfall project will contribute $50 million US to the local economy.
The Gates is estimated to have added $254 million US to the New York economy.
With files from the Associated Press
Last Updated: Monday, January 14, 2008 | 3:13 PM ET
CBC News
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson will create four giant waterfalls in the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn this summer in a public art project commissioned by the City of New York.
New York City Waterfalls is being compared to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates, the series of orange fabric-draped gates in Central Park that drew an estimated four million people to the city.
Eliasson plans to build frames 27 to 37 metres high to create the waterfalls at four locations in the river near the southern tip of Manhattan. One will be at the base of the landmark Brooklyn Bridge.
Niagara Falls, which is 660 kilometres away from New York, is 51 metres high.
Pumps will direct water from the river up and over New York City Waterfalls.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to officially announce the project, backed by the Public Art Fund, on Tuesday.
However, plans have been leaked to the New York press, with some newspapers reporting the project could cost $9 million.
The city's plans include creating a guide of where to see the waterfalls and potential land and boat tours.
Eliasson, 40, is an contemporary artist with an international reputation who has represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale.
In 2003-04, he created The Weather Project for the Tate Modern in London, filling its Turbine Hall with replicas of the sun and sky, a mist machine and a huge mirror on the ceiling that reflected passers-by below.
In a 2000 work called Green River, he poured nontoxic dye into a river in Stockholm, turning it green.
He is known for art that evokes sensory experiences for the public.
Eliasson works out of 15,000-square-foot studio in a former train depot in East Berlin and employs about 40 people, including mathematicians, technicians, lighting designers and architects, to create his works.
The Museum of Modern Art plans a retrospective of Eliasson's art, called Take Your Time, running April to June. The exhibit, now on view in San Francisco, is the first North American retrospective of Eliasson.
The City of New York is estimating the waterfall project will contribute $50 million US to the local economy.
The Gates is estimated to have added $254 million US to the New York economy.
With files from the Associated Press
