Concept: Cracked Ice

Cracked Ice: Glacial Erratic Sculpture Project for New York City is a sculpture project comprised of a series of high profile sculptures to be placed throughout the City simultaneously.

The artworks have been developed from the perspective of a ‘geologic time frame.’  The artwork/s speaks to climate change.   

This total overall project proposes a group of sculptures, of varying sizes, each carrying a glacial erratic boulder, or multiple boulders, balanced on a steel structure, referring to the recent glacier which covered the area.

Each artwork speaks to climate change.  Philosophically Cracked Ice condenses 18,000 years of time into a physical metaphor.  18,000 years ago New York was covered with an ice sheet 2000 feet (600 meters) thick. 

That is, encompassed within the work are 1800 years of ‘global warming’, which is now increasing at a dramatic rate.

The sculptures are constructed of stainless steel, each carrying glacial erratic boulders, are intended to be major iconic markers of our time. They are placed randomly, as glacial erratic boulders would be situated in nature.  Envisioned for New York City are approximately ten sculptures of varying sizes.

The works are sited to appear ‘slightly precarious’ as metaphor for ‘climate change’, alluding to a ‘precarious’ situation for the earth.

The structural engineering is by the leading international firm: Arup, www.arup.com.  The boulders are each firmly attached, pinned and supported.  Technically, the sculptures are fully stable, and secure.

The stainless steel structures allude in form and color to ice fractures, is if they were castings of the fracture voids within the glacier.

The boulders are authentic ‘glacial erratics’, selected for their expressive geological qualities.  They are from upstate New York and the Connecticut River Valley.

These are high energy artworks speaking to relevant issues of our time and place.