Burning ICE
An interactive installation by Chin Chih Yang
August 1, 2009, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Union Square Park near 14th Street
New York City
On August 1, experience the melting of Earth’s ice at Burning ICE, an interactive ice environment by Chin Chih Yang. You are invited to cool down on a giant ice bench as your human warmth melts the frozen water—a mirror of how human activity is hastening the melting of the world’s great ice deposits.
Artist Chin Chih Yang will create an interactive environment with large blocks of ice, providing a cool surface on which visitors to Union Square Park may sit (atop towels) on a warm summer day. Emergency lighting will flash from within as the cool ice melts throughout the day, in stark contrast to the hot stone steps at the south side of Union Square Park. The artist—who this spring exhibited and performed at both the Queens Museum and Chelsea Museum—will facilitate the experience, designed to increase awareness of the importance of ice to the human population.
This summer interaction of ice and people is intended to parallel the extreme environmental changes the Earth is experiencing at this time. The rapid melting of ice in the Arctic, Greenland, and elsewhere is occurring at an ever-increasing rate. Higher sea levels, widespread coastal flooding, and the inundation of Lower Manhattan are very real possibilities. Burning ICE is designed to increase awareness of the importance of Earth’s ice to us all.
This project is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Additional support provided by New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Taiwanese community: Passport to Taiwan, Taiwan Center, Taiwanese Association of America Greater New York Chapter, Dr. Lung Fong Chen, and the Culture Center of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.
Contact Artist:
Chin Chih Yang
www.123soho.com
