INWOOD — When an art project was shattered into thousands of pieces after it landed on Riker’s Island in October, hope for the floating artwork’s future did not float away like some of its pieces.
Instead, the group responsible for creating the dome made of recycled umbrellas have launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising the $7,500 they need to get the eco-architectural sculpture to its intended home — the Inwood Hill Park salt water marsh.
“We need your support to ensure that we can rebuild the Dome — even better this time,” reads the Kickstarter site.
“Harvest Dome 2.0 will introduce light into the work, and have an array of light-emitting-diodes, inserted into each of the bottles and powered by tiny photovoltaic cells to create a glowing halo in the water at night.”
As of Monday, the group raised $2,005 with 27 days to go on the fundraising drive.
The structure, created by architetcs Amanda Schachter & Alexander Levi of SLO, was destroyed by the Department of Corrections after it hit a rough patch of weather on its way to Inwood and landed on its shore. It was being towed passed Rikers on a pontoon of six canoes.
Two people traveled with the unit in order to monitor the installation and make sure the canoes did not sink.
But, as the weather got rough, the canoes were tossed in the East River and quickly filled with water. The paddlers cut the artwork loose to stop their boats from sinking.
Within minutes, the dome washed ashore on the rocks of Riker’s Island where it sustained damage, Schachter said in October.
Photos of the damaged structure were posted on the group’s Facebook page and showed a completely shattered structure on the grounds of Riker’s Island.
Guards initially were worried the structure was a threat to the facility, according to a spokeswoman for the department, but towed the structure with a truck once they understood its origins.
“During that action it got disassembled,” the corrections official told DNAinfo in October.
The dome creators did not immediately respond to a request for comment on their current plans to remake the dome, but Schachter told DNAinfo last year that she hoped to rebuild the dome in Inwood Hill Park instead of taking it on a voyage from the Bronx River up the Harlem River and into the salt marsh.
“We are currently working with local groups along the Harlem River to secure a location to construct the Dome nearer Inwood Hill Park, with an anticipated exhibition date for August 2012,” the Kickstarter account reads.
