Hold Up The Heart - The Times Square Valentine Design

Light Hearted is a public art by Lauren Crahan and John Hartmann, of Brooklyn-based Freecell, in Duffy Square. It is this year's winner of the 2011 Times Square Valentine design competition. The Times Square Valentine is an annual competition to design and build a valentine for display in Times Square in February. This project of the Times Square Alliance Public Art Program is funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. “Light Hearted” is a ten-foot diameter lightweight construction with an open weave fabric that allows wind to pass through but still captures and reflects light. The main structure is constructed of five pairs of aluminum elliptical loops radially arranged with rotating connections, and covered with a skin of red fabric. Six volunteers will hold up the heart for display for 15 minutes at a time in Duffy Square in New York City’s Times Square from February 10th to 20th. Volunteers can register online at www.lighthearted.us. 

Crahan and Hartmann founded Freecell, a design and fabrication studio for furniture and exhibition design, in Brooklyn, in 1999. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a graduate of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. They were finalists in the Young Architects Program 2010 for PS 1 - Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Their work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and in New York City at the Henry Urbach Architecture Gallery, Artists Space, and the Van Alen Institute and the Architectural League of New York. Crahan and Hartmann have both taught at the Rhode Island School of Design. (information from http://www.timessquarenyc.org)

Times Square Arts: ICE HEART

Earlier today, designers from MOORHEAD AND MOORHEAD finished installing a 10-foot tall sculpture called ICE HEART made of masonry-scaled blocks of ice in Duffy Square. The design won the invitational competition to create a public sculpture to celebrate Valentine's Day in Times Square. The competition was juried by representatives from the Museum of Modern Art, The Queens Museum of Art, Performa, and NYC Parks. 

From the Times Square Alliance website:

“We are thrilled to be continuing the tradition, inaugurated last year, of bringing public art to Times Square during the Valentine’s Day holiday,” said Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins.  “This year’s selection, Ice Heart, will become an immediate, albeit transient, landmark for visitors, tourists and New Yorkers alike who can stop by during different times of day to experience this remarkable sculpture.”   

“The Ice Heart will constantly change as its crystalline form picks up the lights, colors and chaos of the Times Square – we look forward to the kaleidoscopic effect, and think visitors will enjoy it as well,” commented Granger Moorhead.  

Online visitors can watch the sculpture change in Times Square and send their loved ones an electronic Valentine at www.theiceheart.com. 

In the fall of 2009, the Times Square Alliance invited four NYC design firms to develop proposals for a Valentine for Times Square.  The architects were asked to envision a celebratory 3-D structure with a strong visual presence during the day, that in the evening would be illuminated.  The work was also encouraged to accommodate public interaction including photography of visitors in front of the sculpture. 

The work of Robert Moorhead and Granger Moorhead, two brothers who run a New York-based architecture and industrial design practice, has been widely exhibited and published, both in the United States and abroad. They were included in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum’s 2006 National Design Triennial, and named Emerging Voices by the Architectural League of New York in 2008.

The sculpture will be constructed by Okamoto Studio, a NYC-based artist collective founded by the father-son team of Takeo and Shintaro Okamoto, which has produced one-of-a-kind sculptures in ice that have been installed in venues from the Rockefeller Center to the runways of Fashion Week at Bryant Park. The structural engineering firm is Robert Silman Associates, which has participated in arts related projects throughout New York City.  The lighting, a key element to bringing the sculpture alive in the evening, is by Tillett Lighting Design Inc., an award-winning firm specializing in the illumination of landscape and public space.

The Ice Heart was selected by the Art Review Committee of the Times Square Alliance.  The committee includes Barry Bergdoll, MoMA, Tom Finkelpearl, Queens Museum of Art, RoseLee Goldberg, Performa; Cora Cahan, The New 42nd Street, Marvin Davis, Davis Reality and Jennifer Lantzas, NYC Parks.

Visitors to Ice Heart can also take advantage of the neighborhood-wide “Free Love in Times Square” promotion.  The Times Square Alliance has teamed up with local restaurants, hotels, retailers and entertainment attractions to offer tourists and New Yorkers alike special deals around the holiday.  Extending through March 31, the offers allow visitors to take advantage of even more amenities and attractions in the area.