1 00:00:07,930 --> 00:00:12,445 [El Anatsui: "Broken Bridge II"] 2 00:00:19,045 --> 00:00:22,844 [The High Line, New York City] 3 00:00:48,828 --> 00:00:52,879 I come from a place where you have a lot of sky. 4 00:00:52,929 --> 00:00:56,111 The sky starts from almost ground level and goes up. 5 00:00:56,295 --> 00:00:59,328 You know, but over here you have to really look up 6 00:00:59,578 --> 00:01:03,261 To realize that there is eventually sky, 7 00:01:03,412 --> 00:01:06,195 [LAUGHS] Somewhere, you know? 8 00:01:06,279 --> 00:01:10,329 That's almost the experience of most people who live in open country 9 00:01:10,329 --> 00:01:13,179 And they come to New York-- 10 00:01:13,394 --> 00:01:17,328 Sky is not a common commodity. 11 00:01:30,079 --> 00:01:35,195 [sounds of city traffic] 12 00:01:39,179 --> 00:01:39,857 [JORDAN BENKE] Right? 13 00:01:39,857 --> 00:01:40,502 [ANATSUI] Mmm hmm. 14 00:01:40,502 --> 00:01:41,910 [BENKE] So we're just going to create a little crease there. 15 00:01:41,910 --> 00:01:42,556 [ANATSUI] Yeah. 16 00:01:42,556 --> 00:01:43,251 [BENKE] To here. 17 00:01:43,251 --> 00:01:43,955 [ANATSUI] Yeah. 18 00:01:44,739 --> 00:01:48,094 But if you push as hard as possible so that it gives... 19 00:01:48,094 --> 00:01:50,416 [BENKE] Yeah, you can make as big a crease as you can there. 20 00:01:50,416 --> 00:01:51,768 [ANATSUI] Yeah. 21 00:01:52,123 --> 00:01:54,144 [sound of metal folding] 22 00:01:54,144 --> 00:01:57,896 [ANATSUI] The crease actually should even be up there... 23 00:01:58,946 --> 00:02:00,294 [BENKE] Let's see, I think they... 24 00:02:00,294 --> 00:02:01,596 [ANATSUI] ...In the corner. 25 00:02:01,596 --> 00:02:04,162 [BENKE] He's adding a lot of wrinkles to the piece, 26 00:02:04,162 --> 00:02:05,568 making more of the creases... 27 00:02:05,568 --> 00:02:10,212 We were, I think, pretty conservative and not wanting to mess with the material too much... 28 00:02:10,212 --> 00:02:11,811 [Jordan Benke, Production Manager] 29 00:02:11,811 --> 00:02:13,494 Because every time you make one of these creases 30 00:02:13,494 --> 00:02:16,295 You're kind of deforming this metal. 31 00:02:16,295 --> 00:02:22,179 Hurricane Sandy came in, which basically meant we were out of power until Friday evening. 32 00:02:22,179 --> 00:02:25,779 Their crews were responding to kind of crisis stuff until the next Wednesday, 33 00:02:25,779 --> 00:02:30,426 Which is the day the nor'easter hit, so then we lost another two days. 34 00:02:34,411 --> 00:02:38,329 [ANATSUI] I came in to look at about three or four different walls 35 00:02:38,329 --> 00:02:44,379 And selected this wall because the other ones were West-facing. 36 00:02:44,395 --> 00:02:49,910 And West-facing didn't have what I think is iconic of New York. 37 00:02:49,910 --> 00:02:54,428 You know, skyscrapers and the lack of sky. 38 00:02:54,431 --> 00:03:01,961 Since the work has mirrors, I wanted mirrors to be able to pick that character and show it. 39 00:03:03,058 --> 00:03:05,211 [CECILIA ALEMANI] You see that, the antenna of the Empire? 40 00:03:05,211 --> 00:03:08,632 [ANATSUI] Ah! Ok, ok, ok! Oh! [LAUGHS] 41 00:03:08,632 --> 00:03:09,579 [ALEMANI] Pretty good, no? 42 00:03:09,579 --> 00:03:19,195 [ANATSUI] I was told that the Empire State Building can be seen in the work, which makes me very satisfied. 43 00:03:19,429 --> 00:03:22,332 It's clearer here than... 44 00:03:23,145 --> 00:03:25,412 Yeah, because the mirror is lower here. 45 00:03:25,412 --> 00:03:28,545 [ALEMANI] Yeah. It's funny. 46 00:03:28,545 --> 00:03:35,012 [ALEMANI] I think this work, to me, is a very interesting evolution in the works that El has been doing in the past. 47 00:03:35,012 --> 00:03:36,629 [Cecilia Alemani, High Line Art Curator] 48 00:03:36,629 --> 00:03:40,694 Because unlike other works that are very precious, and almost jewel-like, 49 00:03:40,694 --> 00:03:46,563 This really intertwines materials that are much more industrial in a way. 50 00:03:50,229 --> 00:03:56,178 [ANATSUI] The mirrors are about the newest element that I'm bringing into my work. 51 00:03:57,862 --> 00:04:02,562 As time goes on, I'm going to get to understand the mirror more 52 00:04:02,562 --> 00:04:11,779 And get to know what it's language is, and what things it can say, and what things it cannot say well. 53 00:04:12,096 --> 00:04:14,844 It's a gradual process.