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Visitors to Brooklyn Bridge Park will find a new feature starting Sunday: a set of whimsical art installations designed for public interaction.

“Please Touch the Art,” by the celebrated Danish artist Jeppe Hein, includes 18 sculptures that represent three separate bodies of work. On the Bridge View Lawn near Pier 1 will be the water sculpture “Appearing Rooms,” which shoots up seven-foot walls of water that abruptly appear and disappear, forming a series of virtual rooms that visitors can move among. (Check out a photo below.)

At the Pier 3 Greenway Terrace is the “Mirror Labyrinth,” featuring mirror panels of polished stainless steel that “multiply the surrounding landscape through myriad reflections.” (A rendering appears above.)

And spread along the waterfront are 16 “Modified Social Benches,” which split the difference between artwork and public bench, with angled, twisted and bent forms. Yes, you’re supposed to sit on them.

“Instead of the respectful distance demanded in museums, Hein’s work invites participation,” said Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of Public Art Fund, which commissioned the works. He calls Hein’s work “imaginative, whimsical, irreverent, and emotionally resonant.”

The installation will be in place through April 17. For more information, go to Public Art Fund or Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Rendering by Jeppe Hein and photo by Jon Spence, via Public Art Fund.

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What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Ran by this the other day and couldn’t agree with you more.

    Nothing wrong with art in public spaces or this particular installation but this green space is too precious to give up.