WEBVTT 00:00:07.930 --> 00:00:12.445 [El Anatsui: "Broken Bridge II"] 00:00:19.045 --> 00:00:22.844 [The High Line, New York City] 00:00:48.828 --> 00:00:52.879 I come from a place where you have a lot of sky. 00:00:52.929 --> 00:00:56.111 The sky starts from almost ground level and goes up. 00:00:56.295 --> 00:00:59.328 You know, but over here you have to really look up 00:00:59.578 --> 00:01:03.261 To realize that there is eventually sky, 00:01:03.412 --> 00:01:06.195 [LAUGHS] Somewhere, you know? 00:01:06.279 --> 00:01:10.329 That's almost the experience of most people who live in open country 00:01:10.329 --> 00:01:13.179 And they come to New York-- 00:01:13.394 --> 00:01:17.328 Sky is not a common commodity. 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:35.195 [sounds of city traffic] 00:01:39.179 --> 00:01:39.857 [JORDAN BENKE] Right? 00:01:39.857 --> 00:01:40.502 [ANATSUI] Mmm hmm. 00:01:40.502 --> 00:01:41.910 [BENKE] So we're just going to create a little crease there. 00:01:41.910 --> 00:01:42.556 [ANATSUI] Yeah. 00:01:42.556 --> 00:01:43.251 [BENKE] To here. 00:01:43.251 --> 00:01:43.955 [ANATSUI] Yeah. 00:01:44.739 --> 00:01:48.094 But if you push as hard as possible so that it gives... 00:01:48.094 --> 00:01:50.416 [BENKE] Yeah, you can make as big a crease as you can there. 00:01:50.416 --> 00:01:51.768 [ANATSUI] Yeah. 00:01:52.123 --> 00:01:54.144 [sound of metal folding] 00:01:54.144 --> 00:01:57.896 [ANATSUI] The crease actually should even be up there... 00:01:58.946 --> 00:02:00.294 [BENKE] Let's see, I think they... 00:02:00.294 --> 00:02:01.596 [ANATSUI] ...In the corner. 00:02:01.596 --> 00:02:04.162 [BENKE] He's adding a lot of wrinkles to the piece, 00:02:04.162 --> 00:02:05.568 making more of the creases... 00:02:05.568 --> 00:02:10.212 We were, I think, pretty conservative and not wanting to mess with the material too much... 00:02:10.212 --> 00:02:11.811 [Jordan Benke, Production Manager] 00:02:11.811 --> 00:02:13.494 Because every time you make one of these creases 00:02:13.494 --> 00:02:16.295 You're kind of deforming this metal. 00:02:16.295 --> 00:02:22.179 Hurricane Sandy came in, which basically meant we were out of power until Friday evening. 00:02:22.179 --> 00:02:25.779 Their crews were responding to kind of crisis stuff until the next Wednesday, 00:02:25.779 --> 00:02:30.426 Which is the day the nor'easter hit, so then we lost another two days. 00:02:34.411 --> 00:02:38.329 [ANATSUI] I came in to look at about three or four different walls 00:02:38.329 --> 00:02:44.379 And selected this wall because the other ones were West-facing. 00:02:44.395 --> 00:02:49.910 And West-facing didn't have what I think is iconic of New York. 00:02:49.910 --> 00:02:54.428 You know, skyscrapers and the lack of sky. 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. 00:03:03.058 --> 00:03:05.211 [CECILIA ALEMANI] You see that, the antenna of the Empire? 00:03:05.211 --> 00:03:08.632 [ANATSUI] Ah! Ok, ok, ok! Oh! [LAUGHS] 00:03:08.632 --> 00:03:09.579 [ALEMANI] Pretty good, no? 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. 00:03:19.429 --> 00:03:22.332 It's clearer here than... 00:03:23.145 --> 00:03:25.412 Yeah, because the mirror is lower here. 00:03:25.412 --> 00:03:28.545 [ALEMANI] Yeah. It's funny. 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. 00:03:35.012 --> 00:03:36.629 [Cecilia Alemani, High Line Art Curator] 00:03:36.629 --> 00:03:40.694 Because unlike other works that are very precious, and almost jewel-like, 00:03:40.694 --> 00:03:46.563 This really intertwines materials that are much more industrial in a way. 00:03:50.229 --> 00:03:56.178 [ANATSUI] The mirrors are about the newest element that I'm bringing into my work. 00:03:57.862 --> 00:04:02.562 As time goes on, I'm going to get to understand the mirror more 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. 00:04:12.096 --> 00:04:14.844 It's a gradual process.