On a Fence

Commissioned by the The Lower East Side Waterfront Alliance and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for Paths to Pier 42, a pop-up park in Manhattan’s Lower East Side waterfront, this project transforms the fence surrounding the park into an interactive structure that incorporates color and signage on the outside, and seating and play areas on the inside. The project seeks to invert the function and meaning of the fence from a physical barrier to a place of inclusion that brings people together. While the existing chain link fence had to remain, the project does not depend on it for structural support. Rather, the piece bridges over the existing fence without touching it, providing a freestanding and stable structure to which furniture was attached. The piece uses painted vertical wood slats constructed out of 2×4’s and reclaimed scaffolding planks as a way to create multiple visual effects in which the fence seems opaque from an oblique angle and porous when looked at straight on. Graphic designer Yeju Choi and I collaborated to develop a color scheme and bold super graphics of arrows pointing towards the entrance that seem to vibrate and change as one moves by the piece. This project opened July 20, 2013 and will be up till November 2013.