Lower Manhattan has a new public art piece: “What a Wonderful World,” by Romanian-born (but New York-based) sculptor Leonard Ursachi was unveiled yesterday in Tribeca Park, the triangular greensward that bisects West Broadway near Walker Street and Sixth Avenue.
Resembling a cross between a giant hornet’s nest and a gargantuan egg fashioned from wicker, the eight-foot-tall piece is woven from tree branches and partially covered with pigmented concrete. Upon closer inspection, the seemingly random splashes of cement turn out to bear a more-than-passing resemblance to the shapes of all the world’s continents. In this context, the tree branches from which the piece is woven come to resemble undulating waves on the surface of the oceans. Two recessed portals invite the observer to look inside, but they reveal only stainless steel mirrors, so that the audience is confronted by itself.
Sculptor Leonard Ursachi: “My art reflects our contemporary world of porous borders and vulnerable shelters.”
“The form and woven branches evoke nests, birth, history, and nature,” Mr. Ursachi muses, adding that, “I grew up under a dictatorship, from which I defected, and spent years border-hopping before settling in New York. My art reflects our contemporary world of porous borders, vulnerable shelters, and mutating identities.”
About the setting for his piece, Mr. Ursachi reflects, “I enjoy showing not only in museums and galleries but also in public spaces, where my work reaches audiences both in and outside the art world.”
“I’m interested in the boundaries that systems create, and how those boundaries are transgressed,” he notes. “I’m interested in the impact of structures — material, theoretical, social, political — on individuals and communities. My sculptures and installations use architectural references as tropes for systems that enclose and exclude, protect and reject.”
“What a Wonderful World” will be on display in Tribeca Park through December of this year.