The Living Pyramid
This spring a major project by New York City-based artist Agnes Denes will add life to the city’s skyline with a curving pyramid on Socrates Sculpture Park’s East River waterfront in Long Island City, Queens. Titled The Living Pyramid, Denes’s new large-scale, site-specific earthwork will span 30 feet at its four-sided base and ascend 30 feet high, created from several tons of soil and planted grasses.
Commissioned by Socrates Sculpture Park, The Living Pyramid is the artist’s first major public artwork in New York City in three decades since her iconic urban intervention, http://www.agnesdenesstudio.com/works7.htmlWheatfield – A Confrontation in 1982. Very few artists can fulfill the moniker of “visionary” and fewer still can match Agnes Denes in breadth, scope, outrageousness, and perseverance. Her work is the product of a fiercely intellectual and distinctive study of semiotics, epistemology, mathematics, history, and ecology, which are grounded in philosophical inquiry and social observation.
The Living Pyramid at Socrates Sculpture Park will unite Agnes Denes’s powerful environmental interventions with her ongoing exploration and invention of pyramid structures – a form that has been central to the artist’s practice throughout her long and distinguished career. For nearly five decades Denes has used the pyramid both structurally and conceptually to examine environmental priorities and social hierarchies. In the Realm of the Pyramids: The Visual Philosophy of Agnes Denes, the first solo exhibition exclusively devoted to her imaginative investigations of this iconic form, leading to the publication of the The Pyramid Book, is taking place at http://www.tonkonow.comLeslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects in New York City from March 14 – May 9, 2015.
For the first time this spring, Agnes Denes’s visual pyramid concepts will be manifested as site-specific, participatory public art at Socrates Sculpture Park. The pyramid’s lifecycle will start in April 2015 as installation begins. As the pyramid progresses, the artist and Socrates invite the public to become part of the installation during a participatory volunteer planting on May 17th from 3 – 6PM, coinciding with the park’s spring opening and New York’s Frieze Art Fair. As tens of thousands of seeds sprout into grasses and wildflowers, The Living Pyramid will continue to grow and evolve, with full assembly and completion this June. It will remain on view through August 30th.
https://socratessculpturepark.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Press-Release_Agnes-Denes-at-Socrates-Sculpture-Park.pdfView the full press release
Digital Media
Catalogue
View the exhibition catalogue online https://socratessculpturepark.org/digital/catalogue-agnesdenes/” HERE The catalogue is no longer in print.
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Video
Socrates Sculpture Park partners with a local public high school, NYC’s Academy for Careers in Television & Film (ACTvF), to document the park’s Exhibitions and Public Programs through a student-created film series.
Watch the video https://socratessculpturepark.org/digital/video-agnesdenes/” HERE
Videos
Socrates Sculpture Park partners with a local public high school, NYC’s Academy for Careers in Television & Film (ACTvF), to document the park’s Exhibitions and Public Programs through a student-created film series. An ACTvF class begins filming in the park each spring and continues through the end of the year to capture both the production and presentation of our exhibitions and programs. This film is a short piece capturing the production and installation process of The Living Pyramid (2015) by Agnes Denes — a large-scale, site-specific earthwork that spans 30-feet at its base and ascends 30-feet high, created from more than 25,000 lbs of soil, as well as flowers and grasses planted by the artist and community. Support The Living Pyramid was made possible, in part, with major support from the David Rockefeller Fund to honor founder David Rockefeller on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The park’s 2015 Exhibition Program is supported, in part, with generous funding from Charina Endowment Fund, Mark di Suvero, Sidney E. Frank Foundation, Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art, Jerome Foundation, Agnes Gund, Lambent Foundation, Ronay and Richard Menschel, Ivana Mestrovic, Plant Specialists, Shelley and Donald Rubin, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Smith, Spacetime C. C.; and contributions from our Board of Directors. These programs are funded, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
(2015) Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid
Agnes Denes
Oral History
Oral History – Lars Fisk
Lars Fisk, facilities manager at Socrates Sculpture Park from approximately 2008 to 2015, reflects on his time at the park in this interview conducted by Co-Director Katie Dixon. Fisk talks about coming to Socrates as a participant in the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program, creating a large-scale steel and masonry sculpture on-site, and transitioning into the facilities manager role. He discusses the rundown state of the studio facilities when he arrived, the physical and logistical challenges of producing outdoor sculpture, and the rewarding experience of working in public view after years of isolated studio practice. Fisk describes the park’s diverse and evoling community of visitors, the neighborhood surrounding the park, and his unusually intimate relationship with the site: he lived on the property in a dwelling he built from shipping containers. He speaks warmly about the staff and crew at neighboring Spacetime/Mark di Suvero’s organization, and about standout projects including the Agnes Denes pyramid installation. The interview closes with Fisk’s hopes for the park’s future and his admiration for Mark di Suvero’s founding vision.
Oral History – Shaun Leonardo
Shaun Leonardo, executive director of Socrates Sculpture Park, speaks with oral historian Dani Stompor to reflect on his two-decade relationship with the park. He begins with his first visit in 2004, discussing his early role as events manager organizing the park’s outdoor cinema program and other community programs, and later to his positions as director of public programs and board member before eventually returning to the park as executive director.
Leonardo recounts the development of community-centered programming at the park in the early 2000s, including outdoor film screenings curated in collaboration with institutions such as local restaurants, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Rooftop Films. He discusses the improvisational nature of producing events in the park’s earlier years, emphasizing his vision of community engagement as a reciprocal exchange.
Throughout the interview, Leonardo reflects on the founding ethos of the park established by artist Mark di Suvero and a coalition of artists and community members who reclaimed the former landfill site along the East River. He describes the park as a “democratic experiment” rooted in learning by doing. The conversation also explores Leonardo’s own artistic practice in socially engaged art and how his institutional work intersects with his identity as an artist.
The interview also examines the park’s evolving relationship with the surrounding neighborhood of Astoria, particularly along the East River. Leonardo discusses demographic change and the importance of continually developing relationships with local residents. In particular, he discusses the unique relationship Socrates has with Astoria Houses and the history of their workforce development program. He also reflects on the park’s ecological stewardship and the incremental transformation of the park through horticulture, land reclamation, and climate resilience efforts.
In closing, Leonardo shares his vision for the future of Socrates Sculpture Park as it approaches its 40th anniversary. He outlines plans to reinvigorate the park’s founding principles while maintaining its role as a free and accessible public space for artistic experimentation and communal gathering. Interview conducted by Danica Stompor.
