High Line Arts – We Who Spin Around You

This past week on the evenings of July 20-21, I participated in what I like to call a “solar experience” on one of my favorite places in New York City: the High Line.

In collaboration with Mexican artist, Eduardo Navarro, and High Line Art, I wrote a meditation on the Sun, its history both in the Universe and in our culture, for a piece called “We Who Spin Around You”. It was such a unique and wonderful experience.

We who spin around you is a new work realized for the High Line at the Rail Yards. In the late afternoon as the sun begins to lower in the sky, Navarro invites participants to don custom-made bronze masks designed to help them safely view the sun, transforming it into a tiny dark green sphere. Then, an astrophysicist gives a brief lecture on solar history, and our changing relationship to science in the context of astronomy and solar studies. The work—situated at one of High Line visitors’ favorite spots for watching the sunset—invites viewers to think about their place in the surrounding terrestrial and celestial worlds.

Lectures are written and delivered by astrophysicists Jana Grcevich and Summer Ash.

Here’s some of the press about the event:

• Artnet, “The Week in Art: Russell Simmons’s Art for Life Gala and Eduardo Navarro on the High Line” by Sarah Cascone
• Artsy, “Eduardo Navarro Asks High Line Pedestrians to Stare at the Sun”
• The Creators Project, Stare at the Sun for as Long as You Want in These Masks, by Taylor Lindsay
• Hyperallergic, “Art RX New York”
• Interview, Eduardo Navarro in Orbit”
• Widewalls, “Eduardo Navarro Stages a Performance Inviting Viewers to Consider Their Relationship with the Sun”