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With the beautiful weather this past weekend I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to check out The Chelsea Project, three public installations designed to enliven the Chelsea area and celebrate the history and culture of the Chelsea neighborhood. Remember when you had projects in school and you always started with a great idea but it never turned out exactly the way you planned? I got that same feeling walking around last night. The concept of The Chelsea Project is fantastic but the execution was not that impressive. I started at 14th and 9th and worked my way up. First stop: Sleeping Monter Producted by Reason, a stark white sculpture made up of a variety of heads and body parts of cartoons and real people....in the words of Tom Hanks in Big " I don't get it." I will admit that I am not a fine arts person so this is just one girls' opinon but I would appreciate someone explaining to me the point of the piece as well as the title. Next stop was 17th and 10th at the Fulton House Playground: AWGTHTGTTWTA was supposed to be a video installation yet my friend and I walked to every playground in that area (there were three) and could not find it anywhere. I was actually excited to see this piece and was disappointed that we could not locate it. Last stop was Neighborhood, a black and white photography spread along 23rd and 10th. I was really impressed with this piece. Loved that it was posted along the blue construction walls! Very unique idea to take old photographs of young people around Chelsea and place current day teens and children holding up signs of what part of the city this picture was shot in. I really thought it was a great concept and the pictures repeated themselves so if you were a less observant person, eventually the photos would capture your attention as you walked down the block.
As a new person to NYC (I officially have been living here a year October 10th) I really loved the concept of The Chelsea Project. I liked that the installations were in parts of the city you would not normally encounter a piece of art and blended into the day to day of the city. What a great way to explore the neighborhood, see all the great restaurants and shops that are in the area (my friend and I ate at The Park- food was fantastic and the venue was so unique), check out the architecture and salivate over the goregous brownstones you wish you could afford to live in, and just people watch in general. Despite my disappointment in the art I saw and did not see, I liked that I had a motivation to walk the neighborhoods and appreciated what the artists were trying to do- create a unique visual experience in a place you would never expect to find it. I hope the Chelsea Project enlists more artists to do installations around the neighborhood. I only explored about seven streets last night and I know there are a lot more blocks of Chelsea to see!