Hands Over The Bridge

Hands Over The Bridge - Giant Hands over the Gothic bridge in Central Park, 2020.

A public art installation, a part of the Giant Hands series of installations. Created as a response to the Lockdowns and for the joy and entertainment of everyone. Not endorsed by Central Park.

A day in the life of not so ordinary a bridge.

The installation developed over two weekends - Aug 1st and 9th.

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.

Mirena Rhee at work on Hands Over The Bridge in Central Park. Many thanks to David Pullman for the wonderful photos of the artist.

The Hands Gesture

I noticed that the hands sometimes hold hands. The work has a life of its own just like a living creature.

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.

Giant Hands Over The Bridge - August 1st

Giant Hands Over The Bridge was a very dynamic work and has been in my head as an abstract form for several years. I had previously tried various “over the bridge” hangings of hands but at the time I had very few hands made.

Giant Hands Over The Bridge was shifting all day as the weather constantly changed, and the wind and the audience were my partners in the work.  I worked all day around the bridge shifting the hands from under the bridge to over the bridge.

Making these installations is very surprising and exciting in that they are only an idea up the moment the hands hit the pavement. The moment the hands hit the pavement - all kinds of things happen - the hands have their own mind. I bend to the will of the hands - I think of what is the most logical way and most natural way to work with them and the space and the place - in this instance - the Gothic Bridge in Central Park.

I have been eyeing the Gothic Bridge in Central Park for a while now, and had been stalking it digitally staring at my phone at the pictures I took of it and the area around it and thinking of when the moment will come to work with it.

Often times working with the ( park, police, fire department, security, general public ) authorities becomes part of the work. Big thanks to the NYPD and the Park Conservancy who allowed me to work and gave me a thumbs up. I work without obtaining permits beforehand because of the ephemeral nature of the work and the very shifting weather, my time and the city we live in.

I worked all day moving hands around so there was not a quiet moment and there were no before and after pictures - first I stuffed them all under the bridge - then I started pulling them out and hanging them over one by one - making decisions in the moment and based on the wind patterns.

The hands love paint but mind rain so I moved the All hands on deck to tomorrow - Sunday, August 9th.

Due to popular demand I am planning Giant Hands Over The Bridge - All Hands On Deck for next Sunday - August 9th at the Gothic Bridge in Central Park

Due to popular demand I am planning Giant Hands Over The Bridge - All Hands On Deck for next Saturday, August 8th at the Gothic Bridge in Central Park.

Free and open to the public ! We will see which way the wind is blowing and will hang the Hands accordingly.

Giant Hands fluttering in the dusk

Video credit: Elaine H Buchsbaum