Betsabeé Romero on Park Avenue
Mexican artist Betsabeé Romero repurposes tires into art installations that comment on migration, movement, urbanity, environmental degradation, and modernity. Collectively titled Traces in Order to Remember, five such installations are currently on view along Park Avenue, from 81st Street to 83rd Street. So, in addition to the primary messages of the installations, there's the irony of having these tire-based sculptures located along a major vehicular artery in a city that's struggling to combat the effect of cars (so long, congestion pricing, we hardly knew ye). But that's not all! By using a process similar to tattooing to inscribe pre-Columbian motifs into the tires, Romero also celebrates Indigenous art and culture, emphasizing symbolic connections between the past and the present.
In "Rubber and Feathered Snakes," above, Romero twines a gilded snake around the huge tractor tire. The carvings --- of figures wearing feathered headdresses, pyramidal shapes, and boxes --- are filled with gold and silver leaf, and sharply contrast with the thick black rubber. The piece glitters in the sun. The shape itself echoes the rings through which competitors would try to shoot a hard rubber ball in places like Chichén Itzá. There's a lot happening here, for sure, but that's what makes the installations so worthwhile. Pump the brakes and take a closer look.
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Fund for Park Avenue
Park Ave, from 81st St to 83rd St
Free
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