Roebling's Arch, 1983 - Mark di Suvero

This edition was produced by artist Mark di Suvero in honor of Creative Time's groundbreaking series Art in the Anchorage (1983-2000), which offered annual public access to one of New York's most spectacular and evocative landmark structures through public and interactive art installations and, later, through experimental music performances and events for Music in the Anchorage. Visitors to the anchorage, located in the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, compared the soaring cathedral-like chambers to the vaults of Piranesi's "Carceri," Roman catacombs, and to the austere intimacy of a monastery. John Roebling, the bridge's engineer, envisioned this space as a double-tiered commercial arcade, or vault for the national treasury. In actuality, the spaces were used for an open-air farmers' market, children's playground, and then were walled off from the street as a WPA project in the 1930s. They were used for municipal storage until 1983 when the Borough of Brooklyn invited Creative Time to mount Art in the Anchorage and Music in the Anchorage in conjunction with the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial activities.Read Less