On May 4, Public Art Fund will present Understanding, an exhibition by British artist Martin Creed. Commissioned specifically for Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 6, Work No. 2630, UNDERSTANDING (2016) is Creed's largest public sculpture, standing 25-feet-tall and visible from nearby Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, the river and the Brooklyn Bridge.
One of Britain's acclaimed contemporary artists and a 2001 Turner Prize winner, Creed has worked in a variety of media and uses existing materials and situations to question the definition of art. His playful approach to conceptual minimalism is apparent in his large-scale, rotating neon text sculptures. Work No. 2630, UNDERSTANDING (2016) is the third iteration in this group of work and includes Work No. 1357, Mothers (2012), which was exhibited in front of the MoCA Chicago, and Work No. 2070, People (2014). UNDERSTANDING is defined by red neon lights and supported by an industrial I-beam that will spin at varying speeds.
"Martin Creed is a poet of the everyday," said Public Art Fund Director & Chief Curator Nicholas Baume. "His art confronts us with things we think we already know - inviting us to look at them afresh. 'Understanding' is a simple word with complex meanings; we might, for example, show understanding on an emotional level, even while not understanding what somebody has said or done. In this luminous and dynamic sculptural form, the word is isolated, monumental, and continually moving. Both literally and figuratively, Creed offers us a new vantage point to see the world. But is this a celebration of understanding or a challenge to us to understand more? Either way, Martin Creed's disarming eloquence captures our imagination."
Brooklyn Bridge Park is a not-for-profit entity that aims to transform the Brooklyn waterfront into a world-class park. Work No. 2630, UNDERSTANDING is sited on the Park's southernmost pier and on view until October 23, 2016.
