FLATIRON — Three towering aluminum sculptures are coming to Madison Square Park this spring, including a "flying" ship that will float in a real tree, park officials announced.
Called "Folly," the exhibit will feature a ship 26 feet in the air, a Rococo-style hut and a horse perched on a 20-foot-tall cliff, the Madison Square Park Conservancy said.
The sculptures, created by New York City artist Rachel Feinstein, were designed to transform the park into theatrical stages, where park-goers can become the actors to their own play, she said.
“The Madison Square Park Conservancy has given me the opportunity to marry my early interest in theater and performance with my later obsession with the handmade in one of the most spectacular settings,” Feinstein said in a statement.
“Having this setting…will be a perfect backdrop for my theater, where the real people who occupy the park every day will stand in as…performers.”
The hut and the horse will be placed on the park's lawns, while the flying ship will be lifted 26 feet in the air and installed near a tree, so that from a distance, it will look as though the ship is actually stuck in the tree, according to the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
The "Folly" exhibit was named after a type of decorative architecture that was popular in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries.
All three sculptures were made out of thin, powder-coated aluminum sheets with graphics printed on the metal, according to the conservancy.
“It has been fascinating to work with Rachel Feinstein to realize these imaginary stage sets as they transformed from her layered, handmade paper models to large-scale architectural, aluminum lawn sculptures,” said Brooke Kamin Rapaport, senior curator of the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
“Folly” will be on display from May 1 to Sept. 7 in the park, located at 23rd Street and Broadway.
