AN URBAN HOUSE
Ephemeral lighting installations have a magnetic power to transform the way we perceive space and how we interact with it. In essence with these kinds of interventions, an invasive infrastructure is not needed to modify passers-by’s spatial perception. Artists use more subtle elements such as colours, reflections, shadows and light to play with our sense of the space and arouse mixed feelings as we navigate their artistic work.
As Uli Beutter Cohen mentions in her book Between the Lines: Stories from the Underground, “How we see our surroundings makes all the difference”. In this case, the artistic proposal is intertwined with our own experiences, with our way of inhabiting public space. For me, urban installations are the most exciting art expressions, as they are a meeting point between endless stories and ways of dwelling in urban nights. They appeal to a more intuitive feeling that is more connected to the way we interacted with our environment during our childhood.
Temporal installation “From Sea to Shining Sea” Nighttime
The first time I visited the installation From Sea to Shining Sea by Tom Fruin, I saw a little girl spinning inside the small house built with colourful plexiglass and steel. The little girl didn’t even notice my presence when I arrived. She was mesmerised by how the tinted plexiglass pieces reflected a rainbow of colours all over the place and over herself. At that moment she was the owner of that space. After a moment she stopped spinning and started walking around the house with a playful sense as when children do in playgrounds. That curiosity resembles the emotion that is generated when physical and emotional places intermingle.
In the end, that is the power of ephemeral interventions, the ability to recall our inner child and allow us to immerse ourselves in a new perception of physical spaces. The colours, the shadows, the reflections and the light make a call to connect with a deeper space, with an emotional place. That perception is what allows us to engage in a deeper way with our environment.
FEELING AT HOME
Feeling at home in a public space is even possible? Many people say that the difference between a house and a home is that home is an emotional place which involves feelings, and memories, and engages our heart. So in that way our home can travel with us wherever we go, we don’t need to be in the same physical space to feel at home and urban spaces can become part of that concept of home. I believe that just as people say you make the path as you go, a home is made by inhabiting spaces, whether physical or emotional.
Temporal installation “From Sea to Shining Sea” Daytime
Keeping that in mind, when I explored the installation From Sea to Shining Sea I had the feeling of being immersed in the beating of a heart. During the day, this house focuses all the energy within its walls and each piece of plexiglass frames various views of New York City by adding a rainbow of colours above the waterfront. In contrast, at night this house physically expands around itself through its colour-tinted reflections. At that moment, the environment felt as if the house allowed itself to be part of something bigger and the concepts of inside and outside blurred their differences.
This is how when night falls all the walls of this small house project colourful textures around the public space. At this moment it doesn’t matter if you are inside or outside the house, in both places you feel how this intervention embraces you and challenges your perception of the space. From a close view at pier 17 this intervention brings a playful feeling to the public space and from a distant view, the house becomes a lighthouse that modifies the urban profile facing the waterfront.
Temporal installation “From Sea to Shining Sea” Nighttime
EVERY HOME HAS A STORY
I believe a beautiful thing about homes is that the same physical space can tell as many stories as the people who live in it. Added to this, these stories transform with the past of the time as our life evolves. Homes grow with us, and our sense of home changes over time in the same way that From Sea to Shining Sea changes during the different moments of the day. It is like this intervention evolves with us at a speeder pace to remember us of our own transformation.
After my visit to this place, I was curious about the name of this installation and how that name was connected with the feelings I experienced when I was going around this installation. After a short research, I found out that Johnny Cash did a conceptual album called the same as this intervention. In this album he described his home, referring to a bigger place than a house, he wrote about his homeland, the United States of America. Also, the first song of the album has the same name and by coincidence -or not- the lyrics of this song are full of memories, colours and places, such as homes.
Temporal installation “From Sea to Shining Sea” Nighttime
From that album, I can deduce that one home can be and collect many memories and an urban home has an even greater emotional charge. We call home to physical houses, venues, cities, countries -as the concept of homeland- and even conceptual places. I’m not sure that Tom Fruin selected the name of his installation inspired by this album, but just like in homes, in the imaginary place of my mind, all of this is connected.
“HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS”
When we travel, even if we have waited excitedly or planned a trip for a long time, during the journey we still experience a homesick feeling, especially if we have been abroad for a long time. But if we are brave enough to allow ourselves to go with the flow and enjoy the present, we can find in foreign cities places that make us feel at home or that become our home.
Sometimes as we explore new cities we are lucky enough to feel at the right place, and in some cases, this feeling becomes stronger when we are abroad, even if our physical house is really far away. This feeling is well summarised in the proverbial saying “home is where the heart is”.
There is something about walking the city in a woman’s shoes who dares to explore the urban night alone, that makes me feel like I am challenging my own culture and the limitations I grew up with.
This is the feeling I experience when I freely explore the night. I feel more at home than when I am inside my own house. There is something about walking the city in a woman’s shoes who dares to explore the urban night alone, that makes me feel like I am challenging my own culture and the limitations I grew up with. Those thoughts make me feel like I’m in the right place. And this is a feeling that I am learning to embrace without regret.
EXPLORE!
If you are living or visiting New York at this moment, don’t lose the chance to visit this urban installation. For me, this is a must-see, especially if you are exploring New York at night. This installation started in May and ends in September 2022. From Sea to Shining Sea is located at the entrance of Pier 17. If you have the chance to visit it, let us know, did you feel at home?
Night-time traveller
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