Photo Courtesy of Kenzo Digital
The glittering expanse of New York’s skyline inspires countless dreams among those who gaze upon it. But nearly 400 metres above the city’s streets, SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, a new, mixed-use property in Midtown, transforms the experience in a way that no other cultural attraction has done before. SUMMIT is made up of three components: Levitation (an adrenaline-pumping, enclosed glass ledge), Ascent (an all-glass exterior elevator that soars more than 305 meters high), and Air by artist and director Kenzo Digital, a mind-bending experience of mirrors, lighting and other elements intricately connecting the city’s urban landscape with the natural environment.
Opened in October after nearly two years that included an “extremely challenging production environment” because of the pandemic, Air is the latest in Digital’s portfolio of large-scale, multi-sensory projects that feature collaborations with some of the world’s biggest celebrities (Beyoncé Knowles, Kanye West) and brands (Samsung, Bacardi). But Air is especially personal for the artist, a lifelong New Yorker who, as a middle-schooler, created graffiti on its streets. In fact, the project’s vision came from a recurring dream Digital has had over the past 25 years, one of the first expressions of which was a silk screen he made in high school. “I came across it in the process of making Air during the pandemic, and it re-inspired me in a powerful way in showing how full circle this idea has come over the course of my life,” he explains.
Talking to SLEEK, Digital shares what drives him and how he hopes his work inspires others to see themselves and their surroundings from a new perspective – whether they’re standing on top of SUMMIT One Vanderbilt or on terra firma.
SLEEK: It seems to me that you work on the threshold of our emotions and sensations. Is that so?
KENZO DIGITAL: Creating work that has emotional resonance is central to what I do. If it’s merely clever, or cool, I haven’t succeeded. What’s important is the power of the effect that the work has on you. The multi-sensory engagement is always in service of emotional impact.
S: Are preoccupied by the deeper questions of human existence?
KD: Sure, I’m occupied with all of the deeper questions of life, as are most people in some way. My work is an outlet for those preoccupations and also an antidote for them.
S: How much reality is needed in art?
KD: In Air, what is in fact real – the physical world you see and touch – is reimagined. So it’s real, but also totally extraordinary, and unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. But the degree to which something needs to be real and how one defines that in art is case specific. An emotion or feeling can be very real inside a story that takes place inside a completely invented world.
S: What are you hearing from those who have experienced Air?
KD: What’s amazing is that it’s different for each person, but that in the end, almost everyone expresses similar feelings of a sense of connection, hope and optimism, which is really wonderful. Many people I’ve talked to have gone multiple times and have had different emotional and psychological experiences each time.
S: What do you hope visitors take away from the experience?
KD: Every person that walks into Air arrives in a unique psychological and emotional state of mind; that can vary by a little or a lot depending on the day. At the same time, arriving in daytime versus night time – and everything in between – affects the mood and feel of the experience. On top of that, the variability of weather and clouds can change the dynamic radically. There is no such thing as non-cinematic weather at that elevation and vantage point, and to watch weather collide with the city and understand how the built world is connected to the natural world at such incredible scale is a deeply humbling sight to behold, one that makes the visitor submit to its power and beauty. In this way, Air reveals that it is a living entity.
S: How did working on the project during the pandemic affect the process?
KD: Over the course of the pandemic, I took several close friends who were really suffering from tragic losses and let them have time by themselves inside the Air prototype in Times Square. I had suspected that there was a therapeutic effect – based on my own experiences – and research and was inspired by the similar effects it had on my friends. The ability to give people that kind of relief through art made me think about how valuable Air could be for New Yorkers as a form of art therapy [helping people] to reconnect with their home as they emerge from the pandemic.
S: How has your hometown of New York inspired Air and other projects?
KD: I think it’s the energy and diversity of the city, the collision of so many different types of people from so many places in one concentrated environment. In service of those people and the unique context of New York comes Air – both an embrace of the intense juxtapositions of New York and a respite from them.
I’ll also add that I have a version of synesthesia that is heightened by the experience of living in New York, sensorially. I’m addicted to the overall sensory experience and seemingly infinite textures of the city – visually, sonically and across all senses. It allows me to experience time in different ways, triggered by seasonal and other sensorial inputs based on combinations of weather and location.
S: Tell us about the story behind your name.
KD: It’s a nickname I’ve carried over since high school. Some of my friends from then called me ‘Kenzo Digital’ because I was a DJ and digital artist back then, and I was always messing with what was at the time cutting-edge creative technology like audio samplers and Photoshop in the early days. It represents someone who’s born in the generation that straddles pre-internet and post-internet.
S: Are you interested in exploring boundaries through your work?
KD: Of course, I’m all for pushing boundaries – not just for its own sake but as a consequence of trying to create work that has lasting meaning.
S: What’s next on the horizon?
KD: This project was a big lift, so while opportunities abound, I’m trying to be very thoughtful about what comes next. Along with new creative challenges, ideally Air will adapt and expand as well. I think it’s just the beginning. There are some other things that I’m waiting for the right time to unleash. I’ve always thought on a large-scale, creatively, and a lot of my career up until this point has been prototyping and experimenting with components and pieces of larger philosophies and hypotheses. Air is a prime example of the scale of creativity that I’m capable of and the kind of thing I am trying to continue building.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
See more at kenzodigital.com