All Photos By Gail

Mad. Sq. Art, the free, contemporary art program of Madison Square Park Conservancy, is currently hosting Fata Morgana an impressive, immersive installation by New York-based artist Teresita Fernández. This is the Conservancy’s largest and most ambitious outdoor sculpture to date.

The outdoor sculpture, which consists of 500 running feet of golden, mirror-polished discs that create canopies above the pathways around the Park’s central Oval Lawn, will be on view in Madison Square Park though through Winter 2015-16.

In nature, a Fata Morgana the name for a horizontal mirage that forms across the horizon line. Alluding to this phenomenon, Fernández’s project introduces a shimmering horizontal element to the Park that will engage visitors in a dynamic experience. The installation is a mirror-polished, golden metal sculpture that hovers above the Park’s winding walkways to define a luminous experiential passage for Park visitors.

The metal forms, perforated with intricate patterns reminiscent of foliage, create abstract flickering effects as sunlight filters through the canopy, casting a golden glow across the expanse of the work, paths, and passersby. The project is Mad. Sq. Art’s first to fully utilize the upper register of a visitor’s space. It’s really quite beautiful.