This summer’s scorching temperatures may reign over many New York City parks, but at Madison Square Park, that doesn’t look likely. Thanks to Teresita Fernández’s public sculpture Fata Morgana, Madison Square Park won’t be—as one could imagine—too hot to handle. 500 feet of golden, mirrored disks are hung high the park’s oval lawn to create an enormous horizontal mirage.
“Fata Morgana is a site-specific work designed for, and inspired by, Madison Square Park,” said Fernández. “My concept was to invert the traditional notion of outdoor sculpture by addressing all of the active walkways of the Park rather than setting down a sculptural element in the Park’s center. By hovering over the Park in a horizontal band, Fata Morgana becomes a ghost-like, sculptural, luminous mirage that both distorts the landscape and radiates golden light.”
Each part of this large-scale sculpture is perforated with foliage-like patterns, and the sunlight filters through each of its separations. The park’s 6.2-acre site approximates 50,000 visitors per day, and the purpose of this art, among its previous installations, has been ongoing since 2004 by the Madison Square Park Conservancy to deliver free public art programs to New York.
“Our mission with Madison Square Art is twofold: it is a consummate challenge for artists to create outdoor work on a monumental scale, and it is a partnership between the Conservancy and the public,” said Keats Myer, Executive Director of Madison Square Park Conservancy.
