Giant Hands Over The Bridge - August 9th

Giant Hands over the gothic bridge in Central Park, a public art installation, a part of the Giant Hands series of installations. Created by NYC based contemporary artist Mirena Rhee.

I decided to come back to the Gothic Bridge and hang all 36 hands, based on a suggestion from the audience and my personal feeling for the place and the bridge.

Awesome day with all 36 of the #GiantHands

This was the second weekend working on the Bridge. Created Sunday, August 9th. @centralparknyc I continue the tradition of @christojeanneclaude except I work quick, light and without permission - simply throw my body, my soul and my hands at it. Btw Christo was from a town in Bulgaria famous for their humor, and which is also my mom's home town - Gabrovo. There's a joke about people from the town that they're so stringy they take their shoes off to dance to the music from the neighboring town. …..

The best thing of the day yesterday was the audience, the audience is always an equal participant in the performances and installation work I do in New York.

I should probably confirm here that I do work without permission and walk a gray line. I always am respectful of the environment, the people and the institutions but I have to push it otherwise the work will never get created. My job is to create. The work no one else I'm sure will do. When I get up in the morning I come up with things to do that will make the world a better place. You can see it as work on behalf of humankind for the betterment of humankind. All this comes from a very strong background in traditional art, my drawings, paintings and commercial work as a Star Wars artist. I'm a drawer and a draftsmen, and a thinker first. Art is the greatest work of our civilization, when I draw and paint I create work that can be potentially relevant 500 years from now. That's why when I create very ephemeral projects I stand on firm ground. As a thinker, as a human and as an artist. Many of the institutions, artifacts and even buildings will no longer be here in the next decades, but my art and the ideas in it will still be around. I consider the material world to be a veil. Ideas are the true carriers of meaning. Our civilization is a material civilization however ideas recorded and developed over centuries are the one thing that has kept our civilization growing. My installations and performances are carriers of ideas, and participating in the common experience of humanity. I do not create art for the formal or decorative experiences of it although being a trained artist I do use my formal judgment to be efficient and to create beautiful work. I do want anyone who sees the work to enjoy it and to be glad it is there. All this gives me great confidence and I will do everything in my power to complete the works I have planned.