'Five Elements' Adorn Garment District Pedestrian Plaza

Artist Xin Song and the Fashion Center Business Improvement District recently teamed up to unveil an outdoor art exhibit titled "The Five Elements," in honor of the Eastern spiritual philosophy that the world, and everything in it, is made up of water, fire, wood, metal and earth. Five 8-foot high frames, each with a different element-themed photo collages of the neighborhood on one side, and black silhouettes on the other, are installed at each Broadway intersection from 36th to 41st streets in the Fashion/Garment District of Manhattan.  

According to the artist, each element corresponds to a different season, and the photographs largely focuses on a single color: Earth, which corresponds with the harvest, is captured through yellow tones to evoke the changing colors of the leaves in autumn. The back of each fixture, meanwhile, consists of carved silhouettes meant to evoke the wrought-iron filigrees that are characteristic of New York City architecture.

Broadway Green - Sculpture with Nature by Patricia Leighton and Del Geist at the Fashion District

Six elevated green cubes have been installed in the Fashion District's Broadway Plazas from 36th to 41st Streets. Created by environmental artists, Patricia Leighton and Del Geist, the sculptures with nature represent an elevation of nature in an urban space. The elevated steel frames also blend with the surrounding architecture. The art installation continues through the end of summer.

FIGURATIONS: Fashionably Nude Female Sculptures In The Fashion District's Broadway Plaza

Figurations: The Fashion District Pilings Project is a new exhibit on the Broadway Plazas in the Fashion District from 36th to 41st Street. Joan Benefiel created 30 translucent resin female nude sculptures that "provoke and encourage narrative interpretation." The glowing pieces are installed on tall wooden pilings. Although I think the figures are too small for the venue, they appear simultaneously confident and pensive, thoughtful and restless, carefree and precarious. They glow beautifully, the intensity dependent on the amount of light around them. The work was selected by the Fashion Center. The display continues through the end of August.

Joan Benefiel describes the work as follows: “The awkward beauty of these figures in this unlikely environment is symbolic of the balancing act we perform as we make our way in a challenging and changing world. And that includes making our way up and down the packed Broadway blocks in the summer sun. The figures simultaneously convey a sense of precariousness and joy.”