Tag Archives: 60th Street

Tatiana Trouvé’s Desire Lines in Central Park

Desire Lines
All Photos By Gail

For her first public commission in the United States, Tatiana Trouvé (b. 1968, Cosenza, Italy) has made a work that responds to Central Park. She came to see the miles of pedestrian paths that traverse its landscape as similar to the arteries of a living being. There’s no singular way to walk through the park, but rather a multitude of possible routes that may be followed according to our own desires.

Desire Lines Black Spools

Desire Lines Black Spools

Drawing on existing maps, Trouvé isolated all of the marked pathways in the park and estimated their distances. She identified 212, from secluded paths to prominent thoroughfares, ranging in length from around 60 feet to four miles. Translating her research into three-dimensional form, Trouvé created three large-scale storage racks that house a total of 212 spools.

Desire Lines Green Spools

Each spool is wound with rope equivalent in length to a corresponding pathway and labeled to identify its location in the park.

Desire Lines Pink and Purple Spools

Tatiana Trouvé’s work is also a reflection on the broader cultural significance of walking. It’s an activity that ranges from personal recreation to political statement, and has inspired poets, musicians, writers, and artists. Thus, the artist has associated each pathway with a title drawn from culture and history that relates to walking. In this way, Desire Lines is both a systematic inventory of the park and an invitation to explore the political and poetic resonance of the simple act of taking a walk.

Desire Lines Pink Spools

Desire Lines Pink Spool Detail

Desire Lines by Tatiana Trouvé (curated by Nicholas Baume) is on Exhibit Through Sunday August 230, 2105 at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street. Make sure you head into the Park for some exploring after you view it, because it’s gorgeous out there!

Central Park

Desire Lines Green Spools

Olaf Bruening Clouds In Central Park

Olaf Breuning Clouds
All Photos By Gail

Just in time for Spring, Olaf Breuning’s installation, Clouds arrived in Central Park on March 4th. The six Bright Blue Clouds tower nearly 35 feet above the plaza at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 60th Street just on the border of the Park. Held aloft among the trees by rudimentary steel supports, the Clouds are made of polished and painted aluminum and were cut to match a hand drawing by the artist.

Olaf Breuning Clouds View Towards Park
View of Clouds Looking Towards The Park

Calling to mind the set design of a school play or child-like drawings of the sky, the idea for this work is inspired by one of the artist’s staged photographs. For that earlier work, Breuning used cranes and cherry pickers to raise large blue drawings of clouds high in the air, creating a momentary scene to be captured by the camera.

Olaf Breuning Clouds View Towards 5th Ave
Clouds View Looking Towards 5th Ave

The exhibit is supported by Public Art Fund. Find out more about the Clouds installation at This Link!

Olaf Breuning Clouds Signage

Raspberry Pistachio Tartlette from Financier Patisserie

 

The highlight of today’s Bastille Day on 60th Street Fair was a stop at the booth sponsored by high-end pastry shop chain, Financier Patisserie. We were blown away when we tasted their delicious Raspberry Tartlettes, which are baked on a rich buttery-sugary tart pastry, filled with a pistachio pastry cream (including scattered, tiny bits of pistachio nuts) and then densely topped with the freshest, juiciest raspberries imaginable. I especially loved how the pistachio creme had nudged its way up into each individual raspberry, giving each bite an extra mini “wow” factor. Financier’s Co-Owner and Executive Pastry Chef Eric Bedoucha (a total sweetheart who was doing an expert PR job manning the booth along with his staff), also gifted each of us with a box of the store’s signature tiny Financier cakes – a unique French pastry which is a rich almond cake traditionally baked in the shape of a gold bar. Vive La France! Financier’s latest store just opened this past Friday, July 7th at 90 Nassau Street at Fulton Street in the Financial district, where it all started. To find the Financier shop nearest you, and taste what I consider to be the best pastries in the city, visit This Link.

The Tart Eaters