Matthew Geller P

Title: Awash

Medium: Steet, wood, water, Plexiglas, pump

Location: Collect Pond, Leonard St., Manhattan, NY (2007)

(2006) installed in Collect Pond Park in downtown New York City.

Combining the archaic and the modern with an absurdist twist, the steel-and-Plexiglas structure provides shelter from its own inclement weather. A water tank sprays water onto a skylight incongruously mounted on a "sidewalk bridge," much like the ones that protect pedestrians at construction sites. The water runs across one roof, cascades down onto a lower roof, and into a gutter that leads to a drainpipe and back to the water tank. Inside the bridge hang several seats recalling both old-fashioned porch swings and traditional park benches, allowing up to eight people to sit and talk while rain splashes romantically on the skylight overhead.

Matthew Geller