Times Square Arts, the public art division of the Times Square Alliance, presents the Winter Arts Program. As part of the Alliance’s commitment to showcasing the best of contemporary art, this season’s lineup includes works from Pipilotti Rist, Alex Da Corte, Naoko Tosa and Mendi + Keith Obadike as well as partnerships with the New Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art.
All events are free to the public.
MIDNIGHT MOMENT
Midnight Moment is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to Midnight. Presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and curated by Times Square Arts since 2012, it has an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million. For more information, visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/midnightmoment
January 1 – 31
Open My Glade (Flatten)
Artist: Pipilotti Rist
In partnership with New Museum
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
On the occasion of her “rapturous” survey exhibition at the New Museum, pioneering video artist Pipilotti Rist re-confronts the screens of Times Square in a multichannel installation of a work originally commissioned by the Public Art Fund in 2000. In vivid colors, Rist presses her face against glass, humorously distorting her features as she attempts to escape the confines of the screen, while also questioning representations of women in advertising.
February 1 – 28
Blue Moon
Artist: Alex Da Corte
In partnership with Whitney Museum of American Art
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Alex Da Corte brings us a surreal, theatrical portrait of a person dressed as the Moon, singing “Blue Moon” karaoke. The work features pop-art colors to brighten the winter sky, and a wry perspective on the dreams in our hearts and our prospects for finding a love of our own.
March 1 – 31
Moving Image New York 2017
Artist: Artist Will Be Announced in February
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Midnight Moment celebrates its fourth annual partnership with Moving Image.
April 1 – 30
Sound of Ikebana (Spring)
Artist: Naoko Tosa
Times Square's Electronic Billboards
Media artist and Japan Cultural Envoy 2016 Naoko Tosa interprets the traditional art of Japanese flower arrangement through digital technology. Captured in marvelous slow motion at 2000 frames per second, liquid paint leaps and spirals across the screen in motion and colors that may rouse the apricot flowers and cherry blossoms of spring.
AT THE CROSSROADS
At The Crossroads is a series of installations and performances on the Broadway plazas that expose Times Square’s diverse local, national and international visitors to quality contemporary art. For more information, visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/atthecrossroads
Winter 2017
Residency at the Crossroads
Mendi + Keith Obadike
Mendi + Keith Obadike turn their twenty-year sound-art collaboration towards Times Square, where they will be exploring, listening, recording, mapping and transcribing the sounds of the district.
February 4th 11:30pm - Midnight
Blue Moon Karaoke Sing-along
Times Square Broadway Plaza between 43rd and 44th Streets
Could this be the world’s largest collective karaoke performance? Largest singles mixer karaoke? Or largest chorus of Blue Moon? Join us for hot cider, wireless headphones and communal longing as Alex Da Corte’s surreal Midnight Moment leads us in song.
February 7-March 5
2017 Times Square Valentine Heart Design
The Office for Creative Research’s We Were Strangers Once Too
Father Duffy Square between 46th and 47th Streets
The Office for Creative Research is the winner of this year’s annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, curated by the Urban Design Forum. We Were Strangers Once Too is a public data sculpture highlighting the role that immigrants have played in the founding, development, and continued vibrancy of New York City. Data from the 2015 Census takes visual, sculptural form in 33 metal poles, inscribed and hued to represent the national origins and shifting populations of foreign-born NYC residents. As visitors travel around the sculpture to a designated observation point, their perspective shifts until the individual color blocks of red and pink resolve into an iconic heart.
Conceived as both a striking visual object and as a point of dialogue and conversation, We Were Strangers Once Too champions the value of diversity in the city, and specifically the city's immigrant populations, new and old, at a time when they are increasingly under siege.
HIDDEN ASSETS
Hidden Assets consist of a series of performances, talks, tours and media-based programs that explore the unexpected history, design and narrative of the district. For more information, visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/hiddenassets
JUNGLE-IZED: A Conversation with Nature
Soundwalk Collective & David de Rothschild
Ongoing
Escape the winter cold by listening to an immersive sound installation of the Amazon rainforest, mapped throughout Times Square. Download the free JUNGLE-IZED LITE app, borrow free Audio-Technica headphones at the NYC & Co kiosk on the Broadway Plazas, and take a quick journey to the Amazon. Download the full JUNGLE-IZED app to travel further throughout the district.
Video Archive
Ongoing
Immerse yourself in the phenomenal history of Times Square Arts. Featuring documentary shorts on our video exhibitions, performances and installations - and VR experiences of unique concerts by Laurie Anderson and Jherek Bischoff - our online video archive is perfect for those who can’t make it to Times Square, or can’t return soon enough.
www.youtube.com/TimesSquareTSq
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by ArtPlace America and ArtWorks. Visit TimesSquareNYC.org/Arts for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts.