exhibitions | "Narcissus Garden" at Rockaway! - Fort Tilden

The MoMA PS1 public art festival Rockaway! is at its third edition in the usual dramatic settings of Fort Tilden. The abandoned US fort site (40.566667, -73.883333) was opened in 1917 at the end of First World War and in use by the US Army until 1995 [1]. Fort Tilden is currently part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, featuring bunkers, abandoned industrial buildings,  semi-destroyed structures next to natural dunes and bird nesting areas.  
   Centerpiece of the 2018 edition of Rockaway! is  Narcissus Garden (1966–present), a site-specific installation  by Yayoi Kusama’s (Japan, b. 1929) comprised of "1,500 mirrored stainless steel spheres" [2]. Kusama first presented the installation and enacted a performance in 1966, at the 33rd edition of La Biennale di Venezia, by the Italian Pavilion. The artist, dressed in gold kimono was tossing the mirrored sphere, next to signs with the written statements “Narcissus Garden, Kusama” and “Your Narcissism for Sale.” Each sphere was offered for sale at 1,200 lire [2].

camminando | Rockaway and the Poetics of Places: Bunkers and Dunes

This is the fourth time in a week I am drawn to the somehow estranged beauty of the Rockaway beach, where urban hip meets surf culture and recent ruins stand in the untouched ocean beach. I am particularly attracted by Fort Tilden, which together with the larger Rockaway area is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Fort Tilden is home to the "Rockaway!" exhibition, organized by MoMA PS1, curated by Klaus Biesenbach in collaboration with Patti Smith, a Rockaway resident herself. A large part of the work is site specific, merging within the vine and graffiti covered bunkers and other ruins from the Fort: grass covered dunes and surf complement the almost surreal atmosphere of the Rockaway...and, of course, the dark Atlantic Ocean, celebrated by Walt Whitman; an installation dedicated to his poetry is also included in the exhibition.