All Photos By Gail
It’s not easy keeping track of all the pop-ups and limited- time-only happenings the NYC art scene, but when your timing is right, the payoff is excellent. For just ten days in September (the 10th through 20th), something very shiny and decidedly surreal took up residence on NYC’s High Line. auruBOROS — Urban Memory and Collective Dream, a monumental inflatable sculpture commissioned by Bulgari, twisted its way across a section of the elevated park directly under The Standard hotel, turning an already visually interesting stretch of Manhattan into something that felt otherworldly.
Created by Berlin-based artist duo Plastique Fantastique, Marco Canevacci and Yena Young, the sculpture consisted of two enormous intertwined golden coils. According to the creators, the work “celebrates the infinite inspiration of the legendary Serpenti Infinito icon and the transformative power of art.”
Although it looked like a massive metal structure, auruBOROS was actually pneumatic — its 30-by-10-by-10-meter form created from lightweight, mirrored TPU and held entirely in place by air.
The name is a playful combination of aurum, the Latin word for gold, and ouroboros, the ancient symbol of a serpent consuming its own tail. Rather than creating a closed circle, however, the artists opened up the form, allowing the golden serpent to weave through the architecture of the High Line. Visitors could walk around, beneath, and through the sculpture.
Its mirrored surface made the city an ever-changing part of the artwork. Buildings, trees, sky and passing pedestrians were reflected in the gold skin, meaning that auruBOROS looked different depending on the light, weather, time of day — and who happened to be standing beside it.
I had the chance to see auruBOROS on Saturday, September 19th (one day before closed,) as I detoured through the High Line on my way home from the Affordable Art Fair just to catch this spectacle. Sadly, it was quite overcast (a storm broke shortly after I returned home), and the grey skies prevented me from getting the best shots of this gleaming golden coil, but you make due with what you have. Also, look at that crowd!
Photographs really don’t capture how unexpected it was to encounter this enormous, metallic form woven into the familiar landscape of the High Line. For something that looked monumental and permanent, it was remarkably light and temporary.
That seems fitting. The sculpture was on view so briefly before disappearing as quickly as it arrived. What remains is the memory of seeing a giant golden serpent curling through one of New York’s most recognizable public spaces — which, after all, is exactly what Urban Memory and Collective Dream was designed to create.
