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Water Towers Filled With Neon Messages Arrive in Madison Square Park

By Heather Holland | February 21, 2014 9:34am
 Three 8-foot-tall water towers showing neon messages inside will be showing at the park through Apr. 13.
'This Land is Your Land'
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FLATIRON — Water towers brimming with neon messages have landed in Madison Square Park.

A new exhibit called “This Land is Your Land” arrived at the park this week, consisting of three 8-foot-tall water towers filled with neon lights and mirrors that reflect the words “me,” “we” and “bed” to visitors walking beneath them, the Madison Square Park Conservancy announced.

Brooklyn artist Iván Navarro, who named the installation after a 1940 Woody Guthrie protest anthem, hopes visitors will walk under the towers and look up into each of them to see the neon words reflected inside.

The tanks, which aren’t filled with water, instead feature lights and shapes, including an image of a ladder in the third tower. An arrangement of mirrors inside the towers will repeat the images, creating a seemingly infinite vertical space, according to the conservancy.

“I like the idea of a reservoir of water,” Navarro said. “These water towers metaphorically function as tall ornamental crowns on the tops of the large buildings that dominate the urban landscape. They punctuate the glory of modern civilization while reclaiming its humanity.”

Navarro made the water towers, which are 7 feet in diameter, specifically for the exhibit.

The installation will be on display through April 13.