Today Junette and I finally tackled Governor's Island, which is just below Manhattan (sort of parallel to and slightly east of the Statue of Liberty). You have to take a ferry to get over there, and now it's the Atlantic HQ of the Coast Guard. Historically it was always a military base, and it became a national park a few years ago. It has rather funky hours, only open on weekends and only during the summer, so you have to plan when to go. There are all sorts of ads all over the subway and it's been on my to do list for ages, so Junette and I finally made it happen today. The occasion was a funky art festival featuring one of her artists from her gallery, Lawrence Weiner. I went to a gallery opening of his works back in the winter--he does funky things with words on walls and stuff like that. For this show he put up the following installation on the pier at the Marine Maritime Building (where the ferry leaves):
It's supposed to be some sort of meditation on the duality of the two coasts (Manhattan and Governor's Island) and how passengers are crossing between the two.
We also saw two pretty cool videos by a hot young Dutch artist with whom Junette's gallery has connections. One of them featured an orchestra and choir on a barge singing the lacrimosa from the Mozart Requiem.
Beyond the art, we also appreciated the view:
As well as a hippie "go green" installation, which was a major highlight. First we came upon a dragon made entirely out of chairs:
As well as a mobius strip, of which I naturally approved:
All in all a highly successful outing...lots of sun, and a nice little picnic too!
very cool pictures - I love the chair dragon too!
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