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Last week I decided to take a stroll on the High Line Park. Now the High Line is one of my favorites places to go to in the city. One of the reasons I’m attracted to it is the location. It borders the Hudson River which makes for a great view on nice days. Another reason is the entire idea behind the park. The High Line is built on what used to be abandoned elevated railway tracks. After years of fundraising and building the southern half of the park opened to the public in 2009. This summer another portion of the park was just opened to the public. There are also a lot of great art initiatives on and around the park. The Whitney Museum is building a downtown building just by the High Line and regularly commission public art works to build up hype for the project. The actual organization that runs the High Line, Friends of the High Line, regularly put art for public consummation on the actual park.

On my trip last week I found a couple of art works on and around the park. The first major one being a sculpture by KAWS at the foot of the Standard Hotel (West 13th St. & Washington St.).

Photo Credit: ARTCO

KAWS started out as a graffiti artist tagging images in his native Jersey City and since then has become an international sensation. His sculpture “Companion” is on view thru October. When I went to record I meant to pick a spot right by the foot of the sculpture but was eventually chased out by a team of photographers shooting some fashion editorial. Typical. So I took charge and went up to the High Line where there’s a seat area that overlooks the KAWS sculpture. That day the wind was whipping, which was a good thing since it was such a hot day! There were people taking a break from work, tourists taking a break from their day, and people just strolling by enjoy a lazy summer afternoon. Take a listen:

After I cooled off for a bit I continued to walk the park. It was a rather slow afternoon on the park, which I don’t mind. Weekends can be a bit of hassle as its filled with tourists. As I was walking up the park I came across a sculpture of oddly shaped birdhouses on wires.

Photo Credit: Sarah Sze

The installation is a work by contemporary artist Sarah Sze (Between West 20th St. & West 21st St on the High Line). The great thing about the installation was that it also acts within in nature. Birds, butterflies and more interacts with art work. Pretty cool! The majority of the park goers thought so as well as many of them decided to stop and take multiple pictures of the installation.

As I continued to walk up the park I noticed a giant black canvas on the roof of a building off of the High Line. This ended up being my favorite find of the trip, mainly because it wasn’t commissioned by the High Line.

Photo Credit: Coburn Projects

I didn’t recognize the name of the artist but I should have once I did a Google search. The work is by Jordan Betten who is the founder of Lost Art, a leather couture brand that has outfitted major artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Steven Tyler, and more. He started to create art work in 2005. His work off of the High Line is simply called “High Lines” (Between 27th St. and 28th St. on the High Line). I loved this one mainly because of the interactions between parks goers. Everyone stopped and talked about the art, you can even hear a French family talk about it in my recording! Check out the sounds for both Sarah and Jordan below:

I had to end my adventuring pretty early due to how hot it was getting and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get more sounds last week due to the blistering heat! Mother Nature sure can hand us a heavy hand to say the least. Wondering where I’ll be heading to next? Stay tuned…