Big Apple Splash 

“Do you hear water running?” That may be the question on the lips of curious New York City visitors and residents alike this summer as four man-made waterfalls are temporarily installed at shoreline locations around town. “Waterfalls,” commissioned by the city’s Public Art Fund, is a major new work by the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson.

By: Deborah Hay

 

The grand mechanical waterfalls, on view from late June to mid-October, will be located at four sites off Manhattan, Brooklyn and Governors Island. They will be visible from land and by boat (more than one at a time from some vantage points) and illuminated after sunset. Circle Line Downtown boat tours will offer special harbor cruises with close-up views of the artwork, which will also be visible from two city ferry lines.

Constructed from ordinary scaffolding and pumps, the falls’ mechanism will pull water from the East River and raise it to heights of 90 to 120 feet; from those heights the water returns -- cascading and splashing -- to the river below. Water filters and intake pools sus-pended beneath the surface of the river will protect fish and other aquatic life, and the whole operation will run on electricity generated from renewable sources.

Since 1977, the Public Art Fund has partnered with more than 500 emerging and established artists to produce innovative temporary exhibitions of contemporary art around New York. Eliasson’s “Waterfalls” will showcase the city’s harbor, the gateway to America for nearly four centuries.

Eliasson is noted for large installations that evoke sensory experiences by their use of natural elements such as light, wind or fog. His previous work “The Weather Project,” a giant sun made of 200 yellow lamps, mirrors and mist, attracted 2 million visitors to London’s Tate Modern in 2003.

Catch The Falls

Olafur Eliasson’s “Waterfalls” will be on display from June 26 to mid-October, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The waterfalls will be located at: Pier 35 in lower Manhattan; between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn; the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge; and on the north shore of Governors Island. Maps showing the four waterfall locations and recommended viewing sites are downloadable from www.nycwaterfalls.org. Circle Line Downtown (www.circlelinedowntown.com) will offer half-hour cruises with close-up views of the falls. Tours depart from the South Street Seaport, Pier 16, several times daily. The cost is $10 for adults. The Governors Island Ferry (www.govisland.com), which will run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will offer views of the installations at Governors Island and between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn, as will the Staten Island Ferry (www.siferry.com). Both ferries are free.