"Saturday Strut" by Judith Steinberg

One of the artworks featured in FIGMENT NYC 2010 on Governor's Island is this sculpture called "Saturday Strut" by Judith Steinberg. The piece is made of painted steel, and was executed in 2003. The exhibit is presented by the Sculptors Guild.

"Living Pavilion," Planted Milk Crate Art Installation on Governor's Island

This is the LIVING PAVILION, installed on Governor's Island for the entire summer season. The installation is the winner of the City of Dreams Pavilion Competition 2010, and is designed by Ann Ha and Behrang Behin. The competition sponsors (FIGMENT, The Emerging New York Architects Committee of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (ENYA), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY)) worked with the winning team to have the Living Pavilion on Governors Island for the summer season.

Ann Ha and Behrang Behin of Living Pavilion imagine a future in which nature is brought back into the city – not replacing its dense vitality, but adding some ‘green’ to the mix. Technologies such as green roofs and green walls will reduce heat-island effect and mitigate storm water runoff. Urban farms will provide nutritious locally grown produce to urban dwellers while making them more aware of where their food comes from. These developments will not only have a positive impact on the city’s environmental footprint, but will also enrich the lives of New Yorkers: they will add a new dimension to the urban experience, making possible new forms of spatial and architectural expression.

Living Pavilion is a low-tech, low-impact installation that employs milk crates as the framework for growing planted surface similar to a green wall. Living Pavilion aspires to create a synthesis of form, structure, light and life. The pavilion’s surface is planted with hanging shade-tolerant plants that will provide an environment maintained at a cooler temperature because of evapotranspiration from the plants. At the end of the season, the pavilion’s modular design will allow easy disassembly and distribution of the planted milk crates to the New York area for use in homes, public places, and community gardens.

Ann Ha received a Master in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2008 and also holds a Bachelor of Design in Architecture from the University of Florida. Her GSD thesis, entitled Reinterpreting Governors Island, envisioned a strategy for adaptive reuse of the historic structures on the island by integrating landscape and architecture at different scales. She has worked at several U.S. architecture firms, including Single Speed Design, Maryann Thompson Architects, Marpillero Pollak Architects, and currently Workshop for Architecture.

Behrang Behin is trained as an engineer and architect, and takes an interdisciplinary, synthetic approach to design. He received a Master in Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2008, after which he continued as an Aga Khan Fellow to study the intersection of technology, architecture, and sustainable urbanism. He has worked on international projects at several U.S. design firms, including Office dA, Hashim Sarkis A.L.U.D., REX, and currently Ennead Architects. Behrang also holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley and a B.S. in Applied Physics from Yale.

(Information from figmentproject.org)

FIGMENT Art Festival 2010 on Governors Island

"Temple of Wonder" by Jen Upchurch, Douglas Hart and Bryan Cates

Designed in the shape of a three-dimensional star looking up to the sky, Temple Of Wonder is intended as a place of exploration, contemplation, reflection, and personal expression. Visitors are encouraged to walk through and sit down at its center, and interact with the temple’s structure by leaving contributions of art, messages, and other ephemera for public viewing on its wooden walls. Temple of Wonder asks the audience to respond to the questions ‘What does the future hold for us?’ and ‘What is it like to be in your own star?’ Temple of Wonder inspires visitors to interact with each other and marvel, be curious – be a star in their own way. As participants leave the temple, their silhouettes appear to leak from the corner of the eye like their own shining star. Following its installation on the island, the interactive elements of the project will transfer from the artists to the visitors who will react to, transform, and change the space in a more personal way.

"Process" by Travis Mong

580 interlocking pieces that each spin freely on their own axis, in colors that are visually pleasing and stunning at the same time. A visitor, or the wind for that matter, can spin one to all pieces of Process, transforming the piece at will to seemingly infinite possibilities. The visitor thus creates an abstract work of art – a color field. Process is a three dimensional piece that is viewed in a perceived two dimensional perspective. It exists between the tangible 3D object and the representational and illusionistic space of a painting. Much like our own cognitive process it embodies both perceived truth and tangible knowledge. It represents and conveys a shared experience the world over.

"1000 Pieces" by Animus Art Collective

The installation of 1000 Pieces – essentially a gazebo – is initially a simple rectangular wooden structure with seating around the perimeter and a roof atop four posts. Running up the height of the vertical posts are pieces of notched plywood. Inside the gazebo, on shelves mounted onto the posts, are stacks of square plywood pieces, also notched. The artwork evolves throughout the summer as passers-by become participants, taking a few pieces off the shelves and connecting them to the structure. Thus, a simple wooden gazebo will appear to be blossoming into color during the summer months. ANIMUS proposes that workshops be held and led by their members in two New York City public schools. The sculptures created by the students will be fastened on top of the structure to serve as the ‘crown’ and ‘chandelier’ of the gazebo. 1000 Pieces will create an environment that instigates a dynamic relationship between the participant and the object, and between the participants themselves.

Video from the 2009 Figment Art Festival

These are a few of the interactive artworks on exhibit on Governor's Island as part of FIGMENT NYC Art Festival, an annual celebration of participatory art and culture. The event features an abundance of creativity and passion, challenging artists and communities to find ways to create, share, think and dream. (Video and Captions from Figment Project)

FIGMENT Art Festival on Governors Island

Eternal Knitter

Shield/Coraza by Hector Canonge

Steel Neal's The Agony of Man

The Temple of Truth by Jennifer Upchurch, Chris Niederer, and Douglas Hart

Minute of Parallax by Jamie Leo and Chris Jordan

Guns and Poses Rosebushes by Natalie Giugni

Discarded by Benjamin Jones and Anna Hecker

Dodecahedron Planters by Bernard Klevickas

Last Saturday, I went to Governors Island for the first time to see the Figment Festival, a celebration of participatory art and culture.

From the website:

FIGMENT is an annual arts event on Governors Island, with artwork in every medium, from installation to performance to music to games and many things in between. Participation is open to any artist who would like to share their work. It is a free, non-profit endeavor run by volunteers. In 2008, FIGMENT’s second year, over 10,000 people attended.

FIGMENT’s vision for art looks past the white-walled galleries and into the realm of participation. Art is not just something that you stand still and quietly look at – it is something you participate in. You touch it, smell it, climb it, write on it, talk to it, dance with it, play with it, learn from it… Interactive art creates a dynamic collaboration between the artist, the audience and their environment.

As a free, public, non-profit event, we aim to advance social and personal transformation through creativity. FIGMENT is uninterrupted by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. Selling or advertising goods or services is not permitted. Neither our artists nor our planners and staff are paid – everything that you see at FIGMENT is born from a simple desire to share imagination with each other and the public.

In these challenging economic times, it is important that artists devise new ways to create, share, think, and dream about what is possible. FIGMENT is an alternative to many of the shortcomings of the commercial art world— exclusive, expensive, impersonal, untouchable and often simply boring.

Famous for his role in New York’s artistic heritage and the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol believed that everyone had it in them to be a star for fifteen minutes. Through his own art, he defined his identity and shaped the world around him. He once commented that he’d like his tombstone to say only one word: “Figment.”
Governors Island, in the heart of New York Harbor, is only 800 yards from Lower Manhattan, and even closer to Brooklyn. It is a world unto itself, unique and full of promise. For almost two centuries, Governors Island was a military base - home to the US Army and Coast Guard. Due to changing needs in operations, the Coast Guard closed and “mothballed” the Island in 1996. New York’s leaders recognized the Island’s potential, and in 2003 the federal government sold most of the Island to the people of New York for one dollar. Today, the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC) oversees 150 acres of the Island, while the National Park Service manages the balance, the 22-acre Governors Island National Monument which includes two 1812-era forts.