The 2015 installation Fata Morgana by Teresita Fernández hangs above Madison Square Park.

 

Named for the visual phenomenon of a mirage suspended just above the horizon, the installation Fata Morgana by Brooklyn-based artist Teresita Fernández hovers above New York's Madison Square Park. Designed in collaboration with SITU Fabrication and commissioned by Mad. Sq. Art, the 500-foot-long canopy comprises a galvanized-steel frame supporting 250 separate panels, 8 to 12 feet in diameter, made from reflective sheets of aluminum-polyethylene composite. The panels' horizontal orientation and CNC-router-cut organic pattern 'really push the material,' says SITU partner Wes Rozen, noting aluminum composite's more typical facade application. Staggered across three different planes, the pieces cast lacy shadows and reflect golden patches onto the ground. Fernández says, 'Fata Morgana becomes a ghostlike, sculptural, luminous mirage that both distorts the landscape and radiates.' The installation will remain above the pedestrian walkways through the winter.