‘We never thought
it would happen’ was the bold headline. These were apparently the
words of Heatherwick that were followed by the sub-heading: ‘Thomas
Heatherwick’s $200 m gamble’: see -
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/19/hudson-yards-vessel-thomas-heatherwick
(and below).
The report was
referring to the new sculpture in the Hudson Yards redevelopment in
New York. This unusual structure has finally been completed. It was
seen during construction, leaving one puzzled as to its purpose. Now
we know: none – it is 'not-art art;' but it does raise some issues that need
airing. Heatherwick declares that he is not an artist; neither is he
an architect; he is a designer: so should we refer to this as the new
NY ‘design’? Oddly, Heatherwick seems not unhappy to let it be seen as
art/architecture, even though he proclaims otherwise.#
M.C.Escher stairs
The text notes:
As
a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, Heatherwick said he and his team wanted
to make something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.
It’s a site for freedom of spirit and personality, offering a
“different kind of public experience that is free for everybody”,
he explains.
The
actual steps that make up Vessel, however, are a different story.
Heatherwick explains they’re inspired by the ancient stepwells in
north-east India, in particular the Chand Baori stepwell in
Rajasthan, an eighth-century landmark which has 3,500 steps over 13
stories, one of the biggest of its kind in India.
“The
repeating stairwells at Rajasthan become almost a textile,” said
Heatherwick. “The stairs are not only for transport, they were
built almost like a meditation.”
Here
at Vessel, guests can look over at each other across a circular
cone-shaped center. “You can have space that’s horizontal,” he
said. “The way you look across at each other here is part of trying
to give you a different experience.”
Still, like all
modern artists, there is the desire for a unique identity: something
that doesn’t exist
anywhere else in the world. This
bespoke quality seems
to suggest something
subtle with the
difference, given that they’re
inspired by the ancient stepwells (sic) in north-east India
and look like it. The
reference is obvious, not at all esoteric or obscure. One might say
that there is something literal here in this copy of the idea. Is
the singular
character of the Vessel the fact that it is what it is – an
expensive sculpture
in New York, and
therefore unique, necessarily,
by definition, unlike anything else in the world, because it IS like
the step well stairs, in
NY? Heatherwick
explains his approach to things in a separate interview.#
The essence of the step well - touching water.
What is unique? In
the Vessel, the steps of the step well have been deconstructed and
reconstructed close to the original intent, but dislocated, rising
into space, into a void, rather than stepping down into the depths of
the earth, into a subterranean void to touch water. Instead of looking like ‘a
textile,’ they have become the structure themselves, a 3D element,
not a marvellous surface framing an open hollow. There is an
inversion here where water level, the destination of the stairs of
the step wells, is now the ground level, the beginning, the approach.
These are sky steps, rising into a void to view water, the Hudson
River, just as the step well stairs drop down into the bowels of the
earth to access life-giving water; but still, in spite of this
variation, the identical pattern of expansion has been maintained. It
is simply as though the step well stair ‘fabric’ has been lifted
out of the ground and placed on it, just to be ‘different.’
Heatherwick opens up
the idea for grand display and entertainment using the classic
modernists argument where the artist says that the work is there for
everyone and anyone to interpret as they see fit. It is the great
‘cop out’ of modernity, appearing to empower the onlooker by
casting all responsibility for quality, for interpretation, onto a
new identity that claims nothingness. It gives all power to the
artist whose silent declaration of special depth and quality, even if there
is only one grand void, relies on the silence of the image and the
individual’s reputation, or the sales pitch, for an assumed
strength and identity. It is a stance that potentially gives meaning
to nothing. The artist is able to set the suggestive scene in the
context of ‘x’s’ work, or ‘y’s’ gallery,’ or high
prices at the sales room - or, as here, for construction; ‘$200m’
- at the same time as being relieved of having to make informative
statements about intentions when it might only have been some blatant
desire to invert or pervert: see Raggatt’s K house: see -
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/03/kmart-house-by-arm.html
A challenge to any work is able to be immediately refuted by casting
aspersions onto the viewer, suggesting some deficiency, either
mentally or emotionally, or both, without doing anything. The artist
is always the winner, always winning. There is never anything
tangible to be assessed, evaluated, or judged.
So there is not much
one can say about the Vessel. Talking about the cost is another
subject that is easily squashed by the same strategy as that used to
induce meaningful meaning, ‘genius,’ by alluding to the perceptions of an ignorant cheapskate. Heatherwick touches on this approach by
suggesting scenarios for his work that is there to accommodate
everything, even unknowns.
“The
idea was that it’s a platform, one that we don’t know what will
happen on it in the years and decades to come,” said Heatherwick.
“You can do what you like here, you can have a discussion, wave at
each other, it’s got no agenda. There is the space to see what
you’re going to do.”
Here at Vessel, guests can
look over at each other across a circular cone-shaped center. “You
can have space that’s horizontal,” he said. “The way you look
across at each other here is part of trying to give you a different
experience.”
Ah!
So it is all about ‘different experiences’ which
seems self-evident to any visitor - but
there is still some search for ‘meaning,’ the
desire to grasp it for unique acclaim:
“I’m
not an artist,” he declares. “My interest in how you make the
world around you better, more meaningful ways in how to bring us
together. We saw this project not as an artwork, but as an extension
of three-dimensional piece of public space.”
The quiet majesty of the step wells seems to be mocked.
One
has to look carefully at words. The idea of ‘bringing people
together’ physically, even in quirky ways for
different experiences,
does not necessarily mean that there is anything more than
proximity; that, even though the words that tell of truly
meaningful, integrative
experiences between people are identical, the words alone
do
not create the event just
by their being spruiked.
It is cheeky to assume so; but, who
cares, it was all worth a medal!
Heatherwick
takes a moment to pause on his walk to the top to explain it’s a
dream come true. “A weird, extraordinary dream,” he says. It was
part of the “inaugural walk”, where the first guests walking
alongside the designer were given Olympic-sized medals to commemorate
the historic opening last Thursday.
Artists
and designers love self promotion and will
use anything to achieve it. It is always
from a position of power, leaving any
critic looking like a meagre, moronic minnow, especially when
something has cost $200m: in New York! - and
by Heatherwick!!
What
can one say but “Gosh! WOW!” - see:
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/03/wow-world-and-me.html
The irony is that the hollow, empty Vessel has been inspired by steps that lead to life-giving water.
THE
REPORTS
The
Guardian report
by NADJA SAYEJ
'We never thought it would happen': Thomas Heatherwick's $200m
gamble
Thomas
Heatherwick
The British designer
has landed in New York with the Vessel, an extravagant 150ft-tal
structure, the most talked about element of Hudson Yards
Thomas Heatherwick posing next to Vessel at Hudson Yards. Photograph:
Mark Lennihan/AP
Walking up the steps
in leather shoes, a yellow scarf and a suit under his wool coat, the
British designer Thomas Heatherwick is climbing up Vessel in New York
City, his latest project at Hudson Yards, for the very first time
with the public. Looking up, he says: “I’ve been itching for this
moment.”
The 150ft-tall
structure is a walkable feat boasting 2,500 steps on 159
interconnecting flights of stairs. With an elevator for those who
can’t manage the mile-long walk to the top, this masterpiece offers
a view of the Hudson river from the west side of Manhattan.
Heatherwick takes a
moment to pause on his walk to the top to explain it’s a dream come
true. “A weird, extraordinary dream,” he says. It was part of the
“inaugural walk”, where the first guests walking alongside the
designer were given Olympic-sized medals to commemorate the historic
opening last Thursday.
“It’s
not an inanimate object,” explains the designer. “It’s
thrilling that it isn’t finished until its able to be lifting up
1,700 people every day. Like Italian promenades, people can look up
and down at each other to share this extraordinary experience.”
From the High Line,
passersby can take pictures of the structure with their cellphones.
Many in the months to come will ask: “What is that?” Indeed, it’s
up for interpretation.
Some are calling it
the honeycomb, others say it looks like a giant shawarma. This
Instagrammable treasure, which has been referred to as a latticed
Stairmaster, has a bit of a spooky, futuristic vibe, like something
out of a Star Wars film.
It also strikes a
resemblance to a climbable MC Escher drawing, some even say its New
York’s version of the Eiffel Tower'
Heatherwick shakes
his head; its none of the above. It all started out as an idea when
he was tapped by the developers for a project the size of Trafalgar
Square in the middle of Manhattan. Naturally, it seemed too good to
be true. The project could have easily fallen through. “You
slightly don’t believe people,” he said. “We took it with a
pinch of salt.”
Photograph: Ted Shaffrey/AP
Heatherwick first
visited New York in 1991 and with Vessel, wanted to pay tribute to
the dynamic nature of the city. Alongside this “Sim City on
steroids” mega-complex that is Hudson Yards, New York’s largest
development since the Rockefeller Center, featuring 16 skyscrapers, a
shopping mall, luxury condos, a performance venue and 20 acres of
public space, he wanted to create more than just a centerpiece.
“Putting
‘a thing in the middle’ wasn’t going to do justice to the
dynamism of New York,” he said. “We got really interested in the
public space, we’re fascinated in spaces that bring people
together, that are free. New York is
a pioneer of that.”
Bringing people
together into a colossal space, much like Central Park or the High
Line, he wanted to build on that heritage. Though, a stair-based
public space project was risky. “We never thought it was going to
happen,” he said.
That was not
intentional, however. Heatherwick chose it to break up the monotonous
grey Manhattan skyline. “Buildings are grey, to have something
warm, it could be a contrast and a compliment,” he said. “There’s
a greyness of all buildings around the world, I felt this could
afford to differentiate itself.”
Photograph: Peter Foley/EPA
Vessel shines like a
polished car hood or perhaps iridescent nail polish across the
concrete and glass surroundings. From afar, it looks like a geometric
piece of public art, especially since there is no direct commercial
gain for visiting the Vessel (guests can visit for nothing by
securing an hourly ticket through the Hudson Yards website).
Heatherwick looks
unruffled upon hearing the words “public art”.
“I’m
not an artist,” he declares. “My interest in how you make the
world around you better, more meaningful ways in how to bring us
together. We saw this project not as an artwork, but as an extension
of three-dimensional piece of public space.”
But is he an artist?
Perusing his portfolio, there is the case he could be an artist who
uses public space and architecture for spectacle. Whether it’s his
Olympic cauldron, the electrifying UK Pavillion at the Shanghai expo
or the ribbon-like temple in Kagoshima, japan, many of his designs
look like sculpture more than habitable buildings.
But aesthetics seems
to fall secondary for Heatherwick, who truly wants to bring people
together in a public space, both horizontally and vertically. “You’ve
still got the space around but you’re getting miles of space, as
well,” he says pointing upward to the top of Vessel, while standing
on its third floor. “You’re able to get both, there’s
flexibility.”
The costs could be
because it was made in Europe, its steel frame covering and polished
steel cladding fabricated at Cimolai, a steel fabrication factory in
Monfalcone, a small town in northern Italy. Transportation was
another issue, as Vessel traveled in 16 different shipments by sea to
arrive on Manhattan’s west docks over the course of 15 days. As a
one-of-a-kind masterpiece, Heatherwick said he and his team wanted to
make something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. It’s
a site for freedom of spirit and personality, offering a “different
kind of public experience that is free for everybody”, he explains.
The actual steps
that make up Vessel, however, are a different story. Heatherwick
explains they’re inspired by the ancient stepwells in north-east
India, in particular the Chand Baori stepwell in Rajasthan, an
eighth-century landmark which has 3,500 steps over 13 stories, one of
the biggest of its kind in India.
“The
repeating stairwells at Rajasthan become almost a textile,” said
Heatherwick. “The stairs are not only for transport, they were
built almost like a meditation.”
Here at Vessel,
guests can look over at each other across a circular cone-shaped
center. “You can have space that’s horizontal,” he said. “The
way you look across at each other here is part of trying to give you
a different experience.”
Similar to how the
ancient Greek amphitheaters are still in use today for open-air film
screenings and musical performances, there’s no telling what Vessel
might bring in the future.
“The
idea was that it’s a platform, one that we don’t know what will
happen on it in the years and decades to come,” said Heatherwick.
“You can do what you like here, you can have a discussion, wave at
each other, it’s got no agenda. There is the space to see what
you’re going to do.”
• This
article was amended on 19 March 2019 to clarify that Thomas
Heatherwick is a designer, not an
architect, and that he designed the Olympic cauldron, not the Olympic
Velodrome.
#
Studio
International report
by ANGERIA RIGAMONTI di CUTÒ
Thomas Heatherwick: ‘Art is like a hovering cloud of energy and
attention that can find itself almost anywhere’
Thomas Heatherwick:
‘Art is like a hovering cloud of energy and attention that can find
itself almost anywhere’
The designer and
founder of Heatherwick Studio talks about growing up with Duchamp’s
Nude Descending a Staircase outside the loo, sending handmade
Christmas cards, and why he wants to apply a sense of specialness to
unlikely places
by ANGERIA RIGAMONTI
di CUTÒ
The
gifted Thomas Heatherwick’s designs are fantastical, practical,
earthy, sculptural, ethereal, occasionally all at the same time. They
are also devoid of mannerisms and the limitations of a signature
“style”, while rejecting any separation between the functional
and the aesthetic. The seeds of his ideas are extensive and range
from the exotic to the domestic: a desert rose crystal; an
old-fashioned pram; animatronic dinosaurs; the Argentinean boleadora
(a throwing device for capturing animals); a windswept field of
grass; the voluminous, architectural folds of a shar pei; and
molybdomancy, the art of divination using molten metal. Whether
industrial, religious or infrastructural, the works forged at
Heatherwick’s distinctly werkstatt-like
studio refute relatively recent, and arguably misleading,
distinctions between art, building and craft. And while he resists
the notion that his creations should be called art, Heatherwick
allows for potential artistry in any space of the built environment.
(. . . interview continued).
P.S.
On might wonder
about access for persons with a disability: at least the top of 'this (self-proclaimed) masterpiece' is accessible.
The 150ft-tall
structure is a walkable feat boasting 2,500 steps on 159
interconnecting flights of stairs. With an elevator for those who
can’t manage the mile-long walk to the top, this masterpiece offers
a view of the Hudson river from the west side of Manhattan.
Given that the New
York subway is not fully accessible, one supposes that it doesn’t
matter that the experience of the 150ft high horizontal space is so
limited for those who are unable to manage the 2,500 steps.
Here at Vessel,
guests can look over at each other across a circular cone-shaped
center. “You can have space that’s horizontal,” he said. “The
way you look across at each other here is part of trying to give you
a different experience.”
This is a strange statement, as though this occasion might not be
able to occur in the step well.
NOTE:
For
those interested in statistics, with the length of this structure
reported as being one mile - 2,500 steps on 159 interconnecting
flights of stairs . . . the mile-long walk to the top - the cost
of the sculpture per linear metre is approximately $125,000.
24 APRIL 2019
It
is interesting to note the variation in terminology in the
promotional texts. Heatherwick seems to bluntly refer to the work as
‘Vessel,’ while the reporter occasionally also uses ‘the
Vessel’ as I have done. The clipped word, the word without the
‘the,’ stands as an address, as a name might; it animates the
piece, personalises it: “Hey, Vessel!” The difference is in
‘Heatherwick’ and ‘the Heatherwick,’ where the latter sounds
differently, here perhaps suggesting more, something like referencing
ownership – ‘the Heatherwick project.’ The additional ‘the’
changes the perception of and feeling for the work, Vessel, turning
it into an object rather than something personable, perhaps friendly,
intimate. Is this an attempt to subtly manipulate our understanding
of and response to the work; our feelings for it? To me the urban
sculpture remains an object, so I have not altered the words to match
what looks like the preferred Heatherwick use.
6 APRIL 21
"You can do what you like here."
The 16-storey Vessel viewpoint designed by Heatherwick Studio for New York's Hudson Yards development has been temporarily closed after a man reportedly committed suicide by jumping from it.
According to the New York Times, a 21-year-old man named Franklin Washington jumped from the Vessel on Monday 11 January. It marks the third death by suicide at the 46-metre-high structure since it opened in 2019.
See:
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