Caterpillar, High Line at the Rail Yards, New York.

On Sunday Nov. 17, access to the exhibition ‘Caterpillar’ at the Rail Yards in Manhattan was moved from West 34th Street to West 30th Street due to works in progress. From the sidewalk where patient passengers queued to board MegaBuses and long journeys, visitors were addressed a few streets away, to the gate that divides the completed sections of the High Line Park from the last stretch of old abandoned rail tracks now under development, where seven sculptures sprang up among self-seeded grasses and small shrubs. Next year, the gate will be removed, and the High Line Park will wind for about 2.4 kilometers, from West 34th Street to Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, an unusual city park created atop the elevated rail line built in the 1930s for the freight trains that served this busy industrial and commercial area. Fallen into disuse and partially torn down, the tracks were rescued from complete demolition in 1999, and later converted into this innovative park by a determined and creative team. Masses of grasses and perennials, carpets of bulbs and clumps of trees, benches, paths and lights will transform this last section now open to the public just for the guided walks to this exhibition.

In the rainy morning of November, the sculptures created by Brooklin-based artist Carol Bove mingled with the rusty rails and the autumnal untidy vegetation. The vertical structures of 14 and A Glyph interrupted the horizontal perspective of the tracks inviting to get closer. I-beams assembled into simple geometric shapes, squares and rectangles that framed views of the river and of the surrounding world, involving the old inert rail tracks in the frantic energy that invades the area.

A Glyph

14

New modern buildings line the tracks and many other are under construction, today just skeletons of concrete and steel recalled by the sculpture Visible Things and Colors: a small concrete block with polished brass cubes. Not far, a large bronze platform laid on the tracks half hidden by the vegetation, Monel. This sculpture was exhibited at Documenta (13) at Karlsaue Park, Germany, in 2012. The outdoor environment was completely different, a formal garden enclosed by high hornbeam hedges where the sculpture was positioned in axis with a white statue of Flora and a baroque Orangerie dating back to the 18th century, and the sculpture was different too. Back from Germany, it suffered water damage during Hurricane Sandy, when salt water corroded the external glossy layer creating the arabesqued and opaque surface we see today. 

Visible Things and Colors

Monel, Detail.

Vegetation was not just a background for the sculptures. At the feet of A Cow watched by Argus, a creeper was ready to climb the structure, while, a few steps away, a small heap of rusty metal strips was surrounded by red berries. Was this the mythical giant Argus who should have watched the cow-nymph Lo with his 100 eyes, but fell asleep? As for many sculptures, the name of this artwork was inspired by a book that the artist was reading, while a nearby switch box was involved in the creative process.

A Cow Watched by Argus

Grasses invaded Celeste and Prudence, two tubular powder coated steel sculptures which stood out in the landscape marking the beginning and the end, or near the end, of the walk. Looking through these snow-white installations the world became smaller and the time slower. The cloudy day anticipated the incoming winter, when snow will hide these giant curlicues whose enameled surface recalls the fragments of electrical ceramic conductors scattered along the roadbed. In the project of development, this area will remain untouched with wild grasses and spontaneous shrubs among the tracks.

Celeste

Prudence

Passing Celeste, the elevated railroad line gently bent and bridged the tracks of Penn Station. Views on the Hudson River accompanied the walk up to Prudence, where the guided walks usually begins. Ahead, workers were pouring concrete.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, New York, November 2013.

Links:
Carol Bove, Caterpillar.
May 16, 2013 - May 2014 
High Line at the Rail Yards
http://art.thehighline.org/project/carolbove/

High Line Park, New York.
http://www.thehighline.org/about/park-information