A rendering of "Fata Morgana." Mad. Sq. Art

A Manhattan Park Turns Into a Surreal Jungle of Mirrors

  1. John Metcalfe

It’s like time stopped during a carnival-funhouse explosion.

Love public art that makes reality seem fracturing into hundreds of shards? Then run on down to New York’s Madison Square Park, where everything’s been festooned with floating, disorienting mirrors.

Local artist Teresita Fernández has hung 500 feet of reflective fragments over the park’s pathways, creating illusions of time freezing during a carnival-funhouse explosion. The installation, which officially debuted on Monday, is called Fata Morgana after a type of mirage that appears on the horizon. The people at Mad. Sq. Art explain more:

The metal forms, perforated with intricate patterns reminiscent of foliage, will create abstract flickering effects as sunlight filters through the canopy, casting a golden glow across the expanse of the work, paths, and passersby….

“Fata Morgana is a site-specific work designed for, and inspired by, Madison Square Park,” said Ms. Fernández. “My concept was to invert the traditional notion of outdoor sculpture by addressing all of the active walkways of the Park rather than setting down a sculptural element in the Park’s center. By hovering over the Park in a horizontal band, Fata Morgana becomes a ghost-like, sculptural, luminous mirage that both distorts the landscape and radiates golden light.”

The project did not have a 100 percent-smooth road to realization. Certain neighbors are “furious” that it will partly block the sky over its nine-month run, reports DNAinfo, which quotes a fuming dog walker: “It’s huge, it’s enormous, and it also looks like they’re building a shelter. This is ridiculous.” But let’s see if those people sing the same tune during the blistering, shirt-drenching heat of September.

Raindrops & Art #madisonsquarepark #art

A photo posted by Alireza (@monsieurgris) on

Cuz sometimes you just need an artful mirror in the sky :) #madisonsquarepark #latergram

A photo posted by Arjun Gupta (@arjunguptabk) on

A rendering of 'Fata Morgana.' (Mad. Sq. Art)

About the Author

Most Popular

  1. Maps

    Your Maps of Life Under Lockdown

    Stressful commutes, unexpected routines, and emergent wildlife appear in your homemade maps of life during the coronavirus pandemic.

    1. Laura Bliss
    2. Jessica Lee Martin
  2. photo: The Pan-Am Worldport at JFK International Airport, built in 1960,
    Design

    Why Airports Die

    Expensive to build, hard to adapt to other uses, and now facing massive pandemic-related challenges, airport terminals often live short, difficult lives.

    1. Anthony Paletta
  3. photo: an open-plan office
    Life

    Even the Pandemic Can’t Kill the Open-Plan Office

    Even before coronavirus, many workers hated the open-plan office. Now that shared work spaces are a public health risk, employers are rethinking office design.

    1. Sarah Holder
  4. illustration of a late-1800s bathroom
    Coronavirus

    How Infectious Disease Defined the American Bathroom

    Cholera and tuberculosis outbreaks transformed the design and technology of the home bathroom. Will Covid-19 inspire a new wave of hygiene innovation?

    1. Elizabeth Yuko
  5. photo: Social-distancing stickers help elevator passengers at an IKEA store in Berlin.
    Transportation

    Elevators Changed Cities. Will Coronavirus Change Elevators?

    Fear of crowds in small spaces in the pandemic is spurring new norms and technological changes for the people-moving machines that make skyscrapers possible.

    1. Laura Bliss
Maps
Click Here
Newsletters
Click Here
Facebook
Click Here
×