Tag: Installation

Molly Gochman – Dispersed Geographies

Asser Levy Park, Brighton Beach, NY
October 7th – December 31st, 2024
Installation series: cut white vinyl silouehettes adhered to concrete

Courtesy of Molly Gochman. Photographs by Alex Mctigue.

In dialogue with her sculptural series, UKR|RUS, which physically embodies the Ukraine-Russia border using reclaimed materials, Gochman’s Dispersed Geographies offers a contrasting medium. This installation translates the border into a two-dimensional form, cut from white vinyl and placed on sidewalks throughout New York City.

By fragmenting the silhouette of the border into 16-inch wide segments that range from two to five feet long, and situating them primarily in historically Ukrainian neighborhoods like the East Village and Brighton Beach, the work explores interconnectedness across distances and communities. The segments, sometimes mere inches apart, at other times separated by entire blocks, highlight the liminal spaces between places and people. These gaps serve as bridges between the local and global, the individual and the collective.

The sidewalk, a ubiquitous public space that facilitates movement and connection, becomes the canvas for Dispersed Geographies. Transforming this familiar ground into a site of contemplation, the installation prompts viewers to reflect on their own journeys. The border fragments become a shared iconography, points of recognition within the neighborhoods where the white silhouettes reside.

UKR|RUS can be viewed at The Ukrainian Museum from September 26–December 31, 2024; and at Asser Levy Park in Brighton Beach from October 7–December 31, 2024. A series of Programs & Events have been scheduled as a part of these installations. Click here to learn more.

Dispersed Geographies can be viewed at various locations around New York City. For a detailed map of the silhouettes’ locations, a Google Map has been created.

Molly Gochman – Gathering at Governors Island NYC

Gathering
September 7th, 2023
Mixed media installation and performance: canvas, rope, and found objects

Situated at Nolan Park on Governors Island, Gathering is a participatory installation by Molly Gochman that invites us to consider how our actions shape our world. Through public engagement, the work encourages viewers to deepen their connections with each other and with the land on which we all live.

Gathering is composed of more than 200 waxed canvas tarps that appear intricately woven into the grass, outlining the shape of Governors Island before its alteration through excavation and dredging in the early 20th century. Draped in white tarp and fastened with rope, the structure undulates across the landscape, encompassing approximately 13,000 square feet of land. The result is an open environment that encourages participants to engage not only with the work itself, but with each other, through acts of play, collaboration, and even alteration. Throughout the month of September, Gochman will periodically unveil sections of the installation, revealing the mosaics of tarps concealed beneath.

Dancers, knot tyers, meditators, healers, community organizers, and other various participants will also energize the site, extending an invitation to join and collectively enrich our understanding of one another. On these occasions, visitors will be invited to take a tarp with them. As they depart with this canvas, the immense installation’s form will begin to evolve—its outline slowly eroding. The work will take on new meaning through this process, as pieces of it find new homes and purposes. The form of Gathering will eventually disappear, yet the exchanges hosted on the site will generate lasting experiences for all who decide to interact with it, just as the individual tarps that make up the work, distributed among these participants, will move on through the world. It’s a dynamic that reflects Gochman’s long-standing social practice, which focuses on activating spaces to facilitate profound collective experiences.