Mel Chin, Wake. Commissioned by Times Square Arts in partnership with No Longer Empty and the Queens Museum. Supported by the Times Square Alliance. Photo courtesy of Chelsea Lipman for Times Square Arts, via artnet News.
Glasstire is proud to report on Houston native Mel Chin and his various art projects across the globe (here, here, here, and here) and now he’s taken over Times Square in New York City. The conceptual artist has dealt with political issues before and now he’s addressing climate change head on.
Artnet News and Hyperallergic have both reported on Chin’s recent Times Square installations, the massive wooden sculpture Wake and Unmoored, Artnet News declares, “The work presents a hauntingly prophetic vision of a city overrun by climate change, completely submerged by the rising tides.”
The 60-foot-tall sculpture Wake was coordinated with the help of Microsoft to create an imaginary flooded Times Square. Today is the last day you can take in this vision on Microsoft HoloLens, a sort of next-gen virtual reality headset with clear lenses.
Unmoored is up through the summer. It allows visitors to see an underwater Times Square through a mixed-reality future in which “global warming has gone unchecked.”
Chin’s sculptures/virtual reality projects allows visitors to see the scary reality of future climate change through the lens of a nervous and prolific artist. To view a short video about the project, click below.
Mel Chin: Wake and Unmoored is on view at Father Duffy Square between 46th and 47th Streets, Times Square, New York, July 11-September 5, 2018. The Microsoft HoloLens viewing station for Unmoored will be open July 11-13.
