Off-site: Parting

Parting is on view at 43-29 Crescent Street in Long Island City.

In summer 2013 Socrates Sculpture Park opened a new project that combines art and green space within a 10,000 sq. ft. lot in Long Island City, Queens – one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in the city and home to a thriving arts scene. Socrates Sculpture Park, known for fostering young and emerging artists and presenting contemporary art in the public realm, introduced the lot’s inaugural art project, Parting, by NY-based architects, Jerome W Haferd and K Brandt Knapp.

Thanks to the generous support of Rockrose Development Corp., Parting will be on view July 13, 2013-June 1, 2014 at 43-29 Crescent Street in Long Island City, where an asphalt parking lot has been transformed into a temporary green space. The lot will be open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am – 6pm, and is located at the entrance of the new M. Wells Steakhouse. Parting is the first public artwork to be installed at the lot, and the first time Socrates Sculpture Park is presenting a project outside of its waterfront park in northern Long Island City.

Parting is Haferd and Knapp’s second iteration, or version, of an original presentation of an architectural folly entitled, Curtain, at Socrates Sculpture Park in collaboration with the Architectural League of New York. Architectural follies are small-scale structures, which often have no discernible purpose, that are placed within a garden or landscape as means of ornamentation, curiosity or to frame a view. Haferd and Knapp’s Curtain (2012), was presented at Socrates Sculpture Park in the fall of 2012 as the winner of its “Folly” competition – an annual opportunity for emerging architects and designers to experiment and build large-scale projects for outdoor exhibition. The competition is an ongoing collaboration between Socrates Sculpture Park and the Architectural League of New York to explore the intersection of sculpture and architecture.

Installed within the landscape of the lot, Parting is a dynamic complement to the new architecture that surrounds the lot. It is a sequence of spaces created through a game of occupation, play, and passage. Parting invites curiosity and exploration by forming thresholds and frames, beginning with an 8’ high entry point that slowly descends toward a walking path within the lot. Covering a 25 square foot grid, Parting is a series of columns that play with the ground plane, and beams that follow a game of rise and fall. The structure is topped by a triangulated canopy, which chain link then envelopes and dances across.

Three primary components make up the architecture of Parting: the frame made of wood; steel joints that connect; and the curtain of plastic chain that is then draped. The center houses an opening to the sky, while elsewhere diagonals plunge towards – and even meet – the ground. The final effect achieved is a habitable ‘drawing’, with thick lines (columns and beams) and thin lines (chain).

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“Parting is an extraordinary site-specific project that straddles categories of art and architecture. Our partnership with Rockrose is yet another example of how creative forces can transform small urban spaces into moments of discovery and vibrancy. We are grateful for the opportunity provided by Rockrose to share the work of these talented architects and add to the collective arts culture growing in Long Island City.”
– John Hatfield, Executive Director of Socrates

“Rockrose is pleased to work with Socrates Sculpture Park. We hope the added visibility at Court Square in LIC will encourage new visitors to discover the Socrates Sculpture Park, one of New York’s great art institutions.”
– Patricia Dunphy, Senior Vice President of Rockrose