On view now through September 3 in New York at the Gateway National Recreation Area at Fort Tilden in New York is the third iteration of “Rockaway!”—MoMA PS1’s summer exhibition takeover, in support of an ongoing recovery of the Rockaway Peninsula after Hurricane Sandy. For the project, the museum is presenting a site-specific installation of Narcissus Garden by artist Yayoi Kusama.
First produced in 1966 as an unofficial installation and performance at the 33rd Venice Biennale, the work is making a return, and this time, beachside. Upon walking into the abandoned Fort Tilden train garage (once an active military base), guests encounter 1,500 mirrored stainless steel spheres reflecting the building’s industrial details. The exhibition draws from Kusama’s continuous artistic thread—having the viewer think, and reflect on, themselves and the world around them. Per usual, visitors are encouraged to use social media to explore others’ expression through a hashtag—and this time it’s #RockawayKusama.
Victoria Miro, London/Venice; and David Zwirner, New York. Photo by Pablo Enriquez.Courtesy of MoMA PS1.
To continue to raise awareness of the ongoing restoration work and efforts to ensure the Rockaways are prepared for future effects of climate change, the collaboration between Bloomberg Philanthropies, National Park Service, Jamaica Bay Rockaway Beach Conservancy, Rockaway Artists Alliance, and MoMA PS1 continues with a third iteration of Rockaway! created in close collaboration with Yayoi Kusama, evoking her youthful, courageous, and adventurous spirit with a work she first exhibited as an emerging artist, like many of the artists who live and work in the Rockaways right now,” said Klaus Biesenbach, director of MoMA PS1 and chief curator-at-large at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
