WEBVTT 00:00:16.701 --> 00:00:19.677 [SARAH SZE ] This is a project I'm working on for the High Line. 00:00:21.952 --> 00:00:25.281 It was scheduled to be demolitioned. 00:00:26.290 --> 00:00:30.333 People in the neighborhood ended up suing the city to keep it and make it a park. 00:00:39.012 --> 00:00:42.180 I really like this idea that natural wildlife 00:00:42.180 --> 00:00:45.250 survives in this intense metropolis. 00:00:45.250 --> 00:00:47.550 They didn't change the space that much. 00:00:47.550 --> 00:00:49.879 They really just framed the wildlife 00:00:49.879 --> 00:00:52.567 that grew there naturally over the years. 00:00:55.147 --> 00:00:58.454 The piece that I conceived was a kind of habitat. 00:00:58.454 --> 00:01:01.620 You have all of these birds, butterflies, insects there, 00:01:01.620 --> 00:01:03.020 and I wanted to make a location 00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:05.164 where you would observe them on the High Line. 00:01:08.073 --> 00:01:10.220 I did tons of research. 00:01:10.220 --> 00:01:12.160 The place that I really liked working with 00:01:12.160 --> 00:01:14.550 is the Cornell Ornithology Lab. 00:01:15.066 --> 00:01:17.460 They do these incredible urban wildlife projects, 00:01:17.460 --> 00:01:18.810 and they were really helpful 00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:20.470 to talk about how this would work 00:01:20.470 --> 00:01:23.163 and what would come to it, what might not come to it. 00:01:23.834 --> 00:01:24.890 They're really trying to figure out 00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:28.890 how to get someone to look and observe for ten minutes, 00:01:28.890 --> 00:01:31.720 and they had said, you know, "Ten minutes of observation 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:34.190 is an incredibly long time for a person," 00:01:34.190 --> 00:01:37.049 and this idea of slowing down and really observing, 00:01:37.049 --> 00:01:39.955 I think it's a really interesting idea also for visual art. 00:01:51.161 --> 00:01:52.299 We're dealing with nature. 00:01:52.299 --> 00:01:54.030 We don't know what's gonna happen. 00:01:54.804 --> 00:01:56.901 Will the birds nest there, or will they not? 00:01:57.310 --> 00:01:59.060 Let's say nothing happens. 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:01.063 It needed to be interesting as a sculpture. 00:02:03.033 --> 00:02:06.840 The thing that made me interested in the piece as a sculpture was this idea 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:10.915 that I'm gonna put the sculpture in a location where you have to walk through it. 00:02:11.734 --> 00:02:16.440 The walk itself becomes like a negative space in the sculpture and that you have this 00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:18.960 this very dynamic experience of it, 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:21.270 and that you see it from far away, 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:23.129 and then in perspective, it grows, 00:02:23.129 --> 00:02:25.660 and then you actually are in the interior of it, 00:02:25.660 --> 00:02:27.058 and then you exit. 00:02:29.732 --> 00:02:32.120 I think the high line is very beautifully designed. 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:36.207 There are all these different areas where you can stop and look, and it frames the city. 00:02:45.234 --> 00:02:48.830 - And I was thinking it should be metal like it's like a little it's almost like a petri dish. 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:52.275 This is a one-to-one scale model of what I'll have fabricated. 00:02:52.275 --> 00:02:56.519 I'd like to have the pieces feel as if they're put together 00:02:56.519 --> 00:02:59.630 Intuitively by hand in the moment, 00:02:59.630 --> 00:03:02.250 So it was important to build something in the studio 00:03:02.250 --> 00:03:05.767 where I could start feeling, "This needs to be more dense, 00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:09.300 the size need to grow," and play around, 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:12.744 have the idea of play and flexibility in the making. 00:03:20.789 --> 00:03:23.170 One thing that was interesting about this project for me 00:03:23.170 --> 00:03:25.954 was that it was very hard to draw. 00:03:26.470 --> 00:03:28.980 I did all of these different versions of this idea 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:30.890 of being split down the center, 00:03:30.890 --> 00:03:33.189 to figure out in space how this would work 00:03:33.189 --> 00:03:35.989 because the promenade cuts the piece in half, 00:03:35.989 --> 00:03:37.580 and this is the one that I chose, 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:38.940 partially because it has 00:03:38.940 --> 00:03:41.743 this spiraling up that's surprising. 00:03:42.189 --> 00:03:44.330 There's a ball that actually fits. 00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:45.844 You can use this. 00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:49.610 The negative space is actually round, 00:03:49.610 --> 00:03:52.110 and you don't really realize it until you get into it, 00:03:52.110 --> 00:03:54.269 so it was built around a ball. 00:04:01.468 --> 00:04:03.409 This is a really simple jig to actually figure out 00:04:03.409 --> 00:04:06.922 a very complex equation, which is how does how does this neg-- 00:04:06.922 --> 00:04:10.160 If we want to carve out a ball, how do you do it? 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:11.989 So this is just this is just the radius, 00:04:11.989 --> 00:04:13.917 but it's the radius at any angle. 00:04:13.917 --> 00:04:17.800 There is a center of the piece, kind of a Palladian idea. 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:19.900 Even if you don't consciously realize you're in 00:04:19.900 --> 00:04:22.400 you're in a negative space of a ball, 00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:26.035 and it has this kind of sense of being surrounded. 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:33.900 Portable planetarium was a piece I did 00:04:33.900 --> 00:04:35.660 that actually was the orb, 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:37.050 and it was scaled very much to this idea 00:04:37.050 --> 00:04:38.720 that you saw it as an orb, 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:40.510 and as you got closer and closer, 00:04:40.510 --> 00:04:43.067 you moved in, and you were surrounded, 00:04:43.067 --> 00:04:44.960 so you went from seeing it as an exterior 00:04:44.960 --> 00:04:46.754 to being in its interior. 00:04:55.996 --> 00:04:58.740 I'll photograph this piece over and over. 00:04:58.740 --> 00:05:01.340 One of the ideas I had about photography 00:05:01.340 --> 00:05:02.690 in relationship to the sculpture 00:05:02.690 --> 00:05:06.580 was that the photographs really become the memory of the piece. 00:05:07.331 --> 00:05:09.530 I'm trying not to just document them 00:05:09.530 --> 00:05:12.650 but to see what I can do in a photograph 00:05:12.650 --> 00:05:14.910 that tells us something different 00:05:14.910 --> 00:05:18.177 or emphasizes what's sort of essential about the piece. 00:05:23.877 --> 00:05:26.620 This piece is playing with one-point perspective 00:05:26.620 --> 00:05:29.060 to represent, to trick our eyes into seeing deep space, 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:30.220 so it's kind of absurd 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:33.350 to actually use that trick in real space, 00:05:33.350 --> 00:05:35.160 but then it's interesting to photograph, 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:36.889 then flatten it out again. 00:05:40.103 --> 00:05:43.090 For me, it becomes more like a Russian Constructivist drawing 00:05:43.090 --> 00:05:44.910 or a Futurist painting 00:05:45.356 --> 00:05:48.380 In that, it's describing speed and movement 00:05:48.380 --> 00:05:51.270 but entirely on a flat, still plane. 00:05:51.634 --> 00:05:54.069 It's also funny because these almost become 00:05:54.069 --> 00:05:56.719 computer images when they're flattened out. 00:05:56.719 --> 00:05:59.270 They're so crisp, right? 00:05:59.270 --> 00:06:02.201 Because they're so exactly in perspective, actually. 00:06:02.201 --> 00:06:04.935 [ grinder buzzes ] 00:06:06.570 --> 00:06:10.170 [ welding torch crackling ] 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:12.410 There's this kind of scaffolding 00:06:12.410 --> 00:06:14.900 that's gonna be the base of the piece. 00:06:14.900 --> 00:06:15.970 Then there are these elements 00:06:15.970 --> 00:06:17.860 that each have a different function, 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:23.270 there's water, housing, and food, 00:06:23.270 --> 00:06:24.330 and there are these different locations, 00:06:24.330 --> 00:06:26.430 and they're based partially aesthetically 00:06:26.430 --> 00:06:29.270 and partially on research and practical need 00:06:29.270 --> 00:06:31.099 for how this might work. 00:06:33.022 --> 00:06:34.620 Originally, I built these strings 00:06:34.620 --> 00:06:36.401 as a jig to measure. 00:06:36.659 --> 00:06:38.090 Right now, all of these boxes aligned 00:06:38.090 --> 00:06:42.000 should be parallel on the sides to these strings. 00:06:42.552 --> 00:06:44.120 All of the fronts and the backs 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:46.527 should be parallel to the blue tape. 00:06:47.090 --> 00:06:49.900 After I built it, I thought, "I like this language." 00:06:49.900 --> 00:06:51.940 You feel the actual thinking process 00:06:51.940 --> 00:06:54.331 of trying to solve a problem. 00:06:56.606 --> 00:07:00.310 This string system was, in and of itself, 00:07:00.310 --> 00:07:02.193 aesthetically very interesting, 00:07:02.193 --> 00:07:04.603 So then this is gonna become part of the piece. 00:07:08.520 --> 00:07:09.840 I was thinking it should be metal. 00:07:09.840 --> 00:07:11.169 - Swivel down 00:07:11.169 --> 00:07:13.580 - These clamps may be completely decorative. 00:07:13.580 --> 00:07:15.380 They may not be doing anything, 00:07:15.380 --> 00:07:17.000 but they signify a kind of flexibility. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:18.962 - To make the right angle. 00:07:18.962 --> 00:07:21.834 I mean, the only problem is, this is gonna- 00:07:34.935 --> 00:07:37.849 [ grinder buzzes ] 00:07:40.570 --> 00:07:42.851 [ drill whirring ] 00:07:43.367 --> 00:07:45.875 Scale is crucial when you're working outdoors, 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:48.349 especially when you're in Manhattan. 00:07:48.349 --> 00:07:51.569 The spectacle of space, of scale, of information 00:07:51.569 --> 00:07:54.834 is so high that the size is crucial. 00:08:03.020 --> 00:08:04.530 I'm interested to take a public piece 00:08:04.530 --> 00:08:06.060 and have it feel intimate, 00:08:07.561 --> 00:08:08.190 and then when you get there, 00:08:08.190 --> 00:08:11.525 you feel slightly embraced by the piece itself, 00:08:11.525 --> 00:08:15.541 slightly nested, which plays on the idea of the habitat. 00:08:21.851 --> 00:08:24.840 I'm always thinking about how the frame can bleed out 00:08:24.840 --> 00:08:26.792 into the location. 00:08:27.590 --> 00:08:31.067 One of the ideas in this piece that even though it's outdoors, 00:08:31.067 --> 00:08:33.700 it still has this quality that it's mutable, 00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:35.510 changeable, that you could come back in a week, 00:08:35.510 --> 00:08:37.910 and it would be configured differently. 00:08:38.708 --> 00:08:41.070 - This is correct, and that's correct, 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:43.435 and that's correct for what I have. 00:08:45.640 --> 00:08:49.390 [ power tools whirring ] 00:08:54.597 --> 00:08:56.070 I studied architecture and painting, 00:08:56.070 --> 00:08:59.734 so I came to sculpture from those disciplines. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:01.090 I'm always thinking, 00:09:01.090 --> 00:09:04.029 "What can you do in a sculpture that you can't do in a drawing? 00:09:04.029 --> 00:09:07.857 What can you do in a building that you can't do in a print?" 00:09:09.569 --> 00:09:12.450 My father is an architect, so I grew up around 00:09:12.450 --> 00:09:16.820 models, plans, looking at construction sites, 00:09:16.820 --> 00:09:18.960 and also with his eye of just always talking 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:21.089 about buildings and cities. 00:09:25.921 --> 00:09:26.974 - That looks good. 00:09:26.974 --> 00:09:28.627 Yeah, that looks good. That one looks right. 00:09:29.306 --> 00:09:33.255 This one looks wrong, but, I mean, That's the one that I made up, so... 00:09:50.333 --> 00:09:51.779 [ drill whirring ] 00:09:56.727 --> 00:10:00.000 Yeah, 'cause it that creates, like, a... [ imitates ticking ] 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.551 A rhythm from there to there to there. It's good. 00:10:25.186 --> 00:10:29.354 [ power tools whirring ] 00:10:32.380 --> 00:10:33.390 My whole body of work 00:10:33.390 --> 00:10:37.090 has this kind of flexible, mutable quality. 00:10:37.090 --> 00:10:40.220 It has the rawness of a studio or the rawness of a laboratory 00:10:40.220 --> 00:10:44.656 where things could happen or things could fall apart. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.571 I think about the first view of a piece 00:10:50.571 --> 00:10:52.963 being like the first line in a novel. 00:10:53.534 --> 00:10:56.012 When you leave, what's the last part of the novel? 00:10:56.266 --> 00:10:58.660 Where do you maintain your viewer's interest? 00:10:58.660 --> 00:11:00.240 Where do you challenge them? 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:01.780 Where's the catharsis? 00:11:01.780 --> 00:11:04.370 So that it is really a kind of narrative story 00:11:04.370 --> 00:11:06.108 of movement through space. 00:11:10.659 --> 00:11:13.399 I talk about the idea of choreographed experience 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:15.950 of the viewer through the space. 00:11:15.950 --> 00:11:18.813 You become aware of your body in relation to the work. 00:11:23.715 --> 00:11:25.639 One of the ideas from the very beginning 00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:28.900 in terms of the materials I use was accessibility. 00:11:28.900 --> 00:11:30.110 A lot of the materials 00:11:30.110 --> 00:11:32.460 were things that you could get at a dollar store. 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:34.435 They're very generic. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.370 The cultural value, the monetary value 00:11:38.370 --> 00:11:40.050 would be very low, 00:11:40.050 --> 00:11:41.740 and then put them in a location 00:11:41.740 --> 00:11:44.250 where that became very high. 00:11:44.250 --> 00:11:47.230 So the shifts in scale were really interesting to me, 00:11:47.230 --> 00:11:49.180 literally, in terms of space, 00:11:49.180 --> 00:11:52.462 but also in terms of the profound and the mundane, 00:11:52.931 --> 00:11:54.969 the fleeting and the permanent, 00:11:54.969 --> 00:11:57.090 a piece that's always teetering. 00:12:15.468 --> 00:12:18.529 Tokyo was a very hard piece to photograph, film. 00:12:18.529 --> 00:12:21.220 It's--you have to see it in person, really. 00:12:27.506 --> 00:12:29.079 Some of my work is really about 00:12:29.079 --> 00:12:32.966 using spaces that go unnoticed or unoccupied. 00:12:34.092 --> 00:12:36.850 In a museum that's designed to see work, 00:12:36.850 --> 00:12:37.850 to then put it in a place 00:12:37.850 --> 00:12:40.938 like the ventilation by the window 00:12:41.149 --> 00:12:43.150 is kind of a nice opportunity. 00:14:29.033 --> 00:14:33.529 I'd very much like the experience of viewing to be one of discovery, 00:14:33.529 --> 00:14:36.876 that you don't walk in, something is presented, and it's framed, and it says, 00:14:36.876 --> 00:14:38.949 "This is important; I'm art." 00:14:39.348 --> 00:14:41.027 Often, with my work, it'll be in a corner, 00:14:41.027 --> 00:14:42.440 or it'll be behind a stair. 00:14:42.440 --> 00:14:44.460 It'll be near the freight elevator 00:14:44.460 --> 00:14:47.628 so that your experience of first is, "Whatis this?" 00:14:49.105 --> 00:14:52.380 For me, most interesting art always has that question in it. 00:14:52.380 --> 00:14:55.530 It always questions what art is. 00:16:15.278 --> 00:16:18.403 [ crowd chattering ] 00:16:21.607 --> 00:16:23.514 - Are we trying to get the birds to come? 00:16:23.514 --> 00:16:25.107 - I don't know. Let's ask. 00:16:26.569 --> 00:16:28.819 - What are what are we doing here? 00:16:29.382 --> 00:16:32.519 - Well, it's an artwork, but it's also a bird feeder and a bird habitat. 00:16:32.871 --> 00:16:34.709 - And birds eat oranges? 00:16:34.709 --> 00:16:36.565 - Yes, orioles eat oranges. Yep. 00:16:36.565 --> 00:16:37.800 - Very interesting. 00:16:37.800 --> 00:16:39.637 - Yep. And butterflies and bees too. 00:16:39.637 --> 00:16:40.800 - It's a beautiful piece, 00:16:40.800 --> 00:16:43.090 but I couldn't understand the fruit on it. 00:16:43.652 --> 00:16:46.325 - Well, it's a sculpture work, but it's a bird habitat. 00:16:46.325 --> 00:16:48.589 - That's what I told you. It's for the birds. 00:16:48.589 --> 00:16:49.523 - For the birds. 00:16:49.523 --> 00:16:51.454 [ both laugh ] 00:17:00.301 --> 00:17:03.040 - Somebody's put their own seeds in, 00:17:03.040 --> 00:17:04.877 'cause we don't use these seeds. 00:17:04.877 --> 00:17:05.890 One of the things that happens 00:17:05.890 --> 00:17:08.492 in my pieces that aren't-- 00:17:08.492 --> 00:17:10.600 have nothing to do with leaving things or for birds, 00:17:10.600 --> 00:17:13.799 but is that people, actually, in museums will leave 00:17:13.799 --> 00:17:16.371 objects from their pockets in the piece. 00:17:23.201 --> 00:17:24.909 - And put more water. - Yeah. 00:17:24.909 --> 00:17:26.118 - And who's the artist? Who did that? 00:17:26.118 --> 00:17:26.837 - I'm the artist. 00:17:26.837 --> 00:17:28.423 - Oh, you're the artist. Congratulations. 00:17:28.423 --> 00:17:29.704 That's really beautiful. 00:17:29.704 --> 00:17:31.501 C'est la dame actuelle qui tu fait. 00:17:31.501 --> 00:17:33.033 - For this particular project, 00:17:33.033 --> 00:17:35.440 I did a lot of research on birds and what birds like 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:37.285 and what could different kind of things 00:17:37.285 --> 00:17:38.989 could attract different kind of birds. 00:17:38.989 --> 00:17:40.860 - Which birds are you attracting in here? 00:17:40.860 --> 00:17:43.070 - Well, these ones are this is sort of the- 00:17:43.070 --> 00:17:45.841 It's a very good basic bird seed just to use. 00:17:45.841 --> 00:17:47.633 - Use for any bird? - Yeah. 00:17:47.633 --> 00:17:50.626 - And is it going to stay for a long time? - One year. Yeah. 00:17:50.626 --> 00:17:51.626 - One year. Wow. 00:17:52.679 --> 00:17:54.467 - So that is doing an experiment at the same time? 00:17:54.467 --> 00:17:55.514 - Exactly. - That's beautiful. 00:17:55.514 --> 00:17:56.257 - That's exactly right. 00:17:56.257 --> 00:17:57.257 It's an experiment. 00:17:57.772 --> 00:17:59.004 - Thank you. - Sure. 00:17:59.004 --> 00:18:00.004 - Au revoir. 00:18:00.463 --> 00:18:01.463 - Au revoir. 00:18:01.900 --> 00:18:02.643 - Say tres bon. 00:18:02.643 --> 00:18:03.283 - Tres bon. 00:18:03.283 --> 00:18:04.283 - Merci. 00:18:04.463 --> 00:18:05.577 - It looks like a birdhouse. 00:18:05.603 --> 00:18:06.103 - Cute. 00:18:10.570 --> 00:18:12.816 - Discovered a new use for oranges: 00:18:12.816 --> 00:18:15.460 Wiping away bird poop. [ laughs ] 00:18:16.592 --> 00:18:17.530 Thank you. 00:18:18.218 --> 00:18:19.067 Thank you. 00:18:19.067 --> 00:18:21.049 How did I make it? That's a good question. 00:18:21.049 --> 00:18:24.449 So what I did was, I made the entire thing 00:18:24.449 --> 00:18:27.500 in a model, so all of this I made in wood, 00:18:27.500 --> 00:18:29.392 and these were all made in cardboard, 00:18:29.392 --> 00:18:32.299 and we used we put we put all of these strings here 00:18:32.299 --> 00:18:36.120 as a guide so we could figure out one-point perspective. 00:18:36.120 --> 00:18:37.455 See all these? 00:18:37.455 --> 00:18:39.470 They've been eating like crazy, and we've been refilling them, 00:18:39.470 --> 00:18:41.610 and they also come for the water too. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:43.239 It'll be different every season. - Cool. 00:18:43.239 --> 00:18:43.907 - Thank you. 00:18:44.907 --> 00:18:48.277 - You put oranges there, you'll get Baltimore Orioles. 00:18:48.277 --> 00:18:49.960 - Yeah, that's what we're that's what we're hoping. 00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:51.921 I heard there's a whole bunch in Brooklyn, but not-- 00:18:51.921 --> 00:18:54.000 They don't usually have them on the High Line, 00:18:54.443 --> 00:18:56.667 But there's oranges, and there's apples. 00:18:56.667 --> 00:18:58.387 - Oh. - Also, it's just nice for color. 00:18:58.765 --> 00:18:59.531 - Thanks. 00:19:01.828 --> 00:19:04.154 - Oh, there's another one flying in. There you go. 00:19:11.163 --> 00:19:13.114 They're interested. They ask questions. 00:19:13.114 --> 00:19:14.713 It just blends in with the environment, 00:19:14.713 --> 00:19:16.382 blends in with the pathway. 00:19:16.382 --> 00:19:18.211 They're not questioning why it's there 00:19:18.211 --> 00:19:20.491 in the same way that you often have with public art. 00:19:20.491 --> 00:19:23.034 You know? That's good. [ laughs ] 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:25.818 - I love bumblebees! 00:19:25.818 --> 00:19:27.043 'Cause I saw them! 00:19:27.590 --> 00:19:29.501 I love bumblebees! 00:19:49.746 --> 00:19:55.746 ♪ ♪ 00:20:08.177 --> 00:20:11.451 [ ANNOUNCER ] To learn more about "Art in the Twenty-First Century" 00:20:11.451 --> 00:20:13.534 and its educational resources, 00:20:13.534 --> 00:20:18.441 please visit us online at: PBS.org/Art21 00:20:21.588 --> 00:20:25.360 “Art in the Twenty-First Century” is available on DVD. 00:20:25.554 --> 00:20:28.259 The companion book is also available. 00:20:28.259 --> 00:20:32.079 To order, visit us online at: shopPBS.org 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:37.179 or call PBS Home Video at: 1-800-PLAY-PBS