“Cabin” by Rachel Whiteread. Image Courtesy of The Trust of Governors Island. Photo by Timothy Schenck
British artist Rachel Whiteread has unveiled her latest site-specific installation “Cabin” in New York City. The intriguing piece is located on top of Discovery Hill on Governors Island and was devised using a previously existing New England-style wooden shed as the mould for impenetrable concrete cabin. The work is romantic and evocative, and deliberately juxtaposes Lower Manhattan’s opulence and the humility attached to a cabin lifestyle.
Back in 1998, the Turner Prize winner had the opportunity to set up her first public installation in New York City, where she made “Water Tower”, a translucent resin-based art piece that blended infrastructure with art as symbiotic entities that denoted presence and ephemerality. Shortly after 9/11 the artist was asked again to make new work for Governors Island but decided against because of its proximity to ground zero.
Open to the public since late July, “Cabin” is meant to represent the absence of space by casting the space that once existed but no longer does. Through this work Whiteread hopes to blur the notion of space even further by allowing the blooming nature of the park to cover and hide the installation, which is presently evident atop the hill. In the future, finding the artwork will be a serendipitous act, but for now it seats at Discovery Hill to remind it’s public that even in a large, developed and polluted city like New York, nature is still present.
@governorsisland View from Rachel Whiteread’s #cabin In the #hillsgi
Ein von Slow Nature Fast City (@slownaturefastcity) gepostetes Foto am
The site-specific permanent Installation “Cabin” can be found at Discovery Hill, The Hills, Governors Island, New York City