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Sydney Shen, SBNO (Standing But Not Operating)
The Art Students League of New York and The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation are proud to present Works in Public 2024, a year-long outdoor public art exhibition at Riverside Park in Manhattan. The exhibition features four new site-specific sculptures by League artists: Patricia Espinosa and Malin Abrahamsson in Riverside Park North at 145th Street and Riverside Drive, and Henry Roundtrip Marton Newman and Sydney Shen in Riverside Park South at 61st Street.
Join the artists for the opening reception on Saturday, October 5 at 3pm (Espinosa and Abrahamsson at Riverside Park North) and Monday, October 7 at 5pm (Newman and Shen at Riverside Park South).
Please note—due to construction, the nearest entrance to our exhibition at Riverside Park Noth is at 148th Street and Riverside Drive. The stairs behind the playground will take you down to the waterfront, where you can make a left and proceed along the greenway to the exhibition site. For visitors who prefer a ramp, access is also available via the pedestrian bridge at 151st Street.
About the Artists & Art
Project Description:
Like grains slipping through an hourglass, time fades as water vanishes. Drop by drop.
A twisted sponge emulating an hourglass sits atop a drain that catches its running waters. A handle on the base invites us to turn it and listen to the sound of water trickling away, reminding us of the scarce time we have left to act.
In Memory of Mariano del Rosario. Artist, Teacher, Mentor.
The Hourglass seeks to address the critical issue of water scarcity. The sculpture takes the form of a giant twisted sponge, resembling an hourglass, that symbolizes the diminishing availability of water. It combines both concepts –sponge & hourglass – seeking to visually, and technically, capture the course of water passing through and running out.
The sculpture of the sponge is positioned atop a base designed to resemble a drain. The base has a dual purpose; supporting the sculpture and housing a “sound box” that when activated by a handle, generates the sound of running water.
Bio:
Patricia Espinosa is a socially engaged multidisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Mexico, she was nourished by the vibrancy, passion and joie de vivre of Mexican culture.
In her practice she uses ordinary objects –like toys, cosmetics, household devices– and takes them out of context to create powerful commentary. The visual language she creates is both playful and deeply unsettling, forcing the viewer to confront what he might in other circumstances overlook. Patricia aims to incite interest in pressing issues by drawing connections to everyday experiences.
She works, lives and loves life in Brooklyn New York.
Website: patriciaespinosa.com
Instagram: @espiarte
Project Description:
Moon Finder is a public sculpture and orientation device. Aligned with the ecliptic—the broad, dynamic celestial belt where the Sun, Moon, and planets orbit through space—it reflects Earth’s emerging position and astronomical relationships within the solar system. Combining elements of science and engineering with the moon’s symbolism as an object of longing and desire, Moon Finder acts as both a literal and metaphorical navigation tool, pointing to this location in Riverside Park and your presence in the cosmos.
Bio:
Malin Abrahamsson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she is the recipient of numerous residencies and awards. Previous public art commissions include permanent and temporary projects in Times Square, throughout New York City, and in Tokyo, Japan. Born and raised in northern Sweden, Malin earned a BFA with honorable mention from the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Website: malinabrahamsson.com
Instagram: @malin.b.abrahamsson
Project Description:
Ectoplasm seeks to mediate the divide between public and private grief, offering an opportunity to reflect on our shared melancholia. It consists of clear acrylic panels etched with life-sized silhouetted figures – all set within an architectural steel frame. The structure itself abstracts the city and renders it transparent. Populating the sculpture are figures caught in benign life. As the sun moves across the sky, shadowy reflections of the figures are cast, reforming and disappearing with the sun. Through the sculpture, the divides between interior and exterior, material and immaterial, gone and present, are blurred.
Bio:
Henry Roundtrip Marton Newman is a sculptor and installation artist practicing in New York City. He is interested in the possibility of art being the other within a relationship and a transitional object between the viewer and other – as both subject and mediator of subject. His work has been shown and supported by All Street Gallery, State of Wonder, and the Peter Bullough Foundation amongst others.
Website: henryroundtripmartonnewman.com
Instagram: @snurt.mgoo
Project Description:
This sculpture takes the form of something unsettlingly in between a metronome, carnival ride, and anatomical model. Metronomes measure time through beats akin to the human heartbeat, beats per minute rapidly increase in response to arousal. As an artist, Shen is interested in ambivalent emotional states such as fear and wonder, pleasure and pain. Shen’s sculptures destabilize motifs of the macabre. As a roller coaster enthusiast, Shen is fascinated by how theme parks sublimate the thrill of near-death into a form of amusement. This speaks to an innate human desire to be moved–physically and metaphorically–beyond our limits.
Bio:
Sydney Shen (b. 1989) is a New York-based artist. She received her BFA from The Cooper Union in 2011. She received the 2019–20 Jerome Foundation Queens Museum Emerging Artist Fellowship and was a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program resident. Select solo exhibitions include First Chair, Gallery Vacancy at Art Basel Hong Kong (2023), Strange But True, Queens Museum, New York, (2021), Misery Whip, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, (2021), Every Good Boy Does Fine, Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna, (2019), and Onion Master, New Museum, New York, (2019). Her work is in major collections, including Asymmetry Art Foundation, Longlati Foundation, M+ Museum, and Sigg Collection.
Website: sydneyshen.info
Instagram: @lawnmowerwoman
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