They are as much a symbol of New York City as the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, but far more humble. The wooden water towers that dot the city’s rooflines seem like relics from an older era, and yet they still provide water to thousands of buildings, doing their job well enough that centuries of technological advances have failed to render them entirely obsolete.
For his exhibition This Land Is Your Land, Chilean-born, Brooklyn-based artist Iván Navarro planted three replicas of these surprisingly enduring pieces of the cityscape in the middle of Madison Square Park. Smaller in size than the real thing, Navarro’s 7-foot in diameter containers stand eight feet in the air, raised on metal platforms. Inside the wooden tanks, the artist has placed three of his signature installations, seemingly infinite spaces constructed with mirrors and neon tubes. While his work often creates these trompe l'oeil voids in walls and floors, in the park, viewers look up into the base of the water towers to discover an improbable vastness. Each interior is emblazoned with a different neon configuration. One spells out “ME” and, in mirror, “WE”. Another appears to endlessly repeat the word “bed.” And the last presents a neon ladder that ascends into infinity. The result is a series of selfie-ready spectacles contained in unassuming wooden structures.
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