Photo reportage from Žilvinas Kempinas’ installation Scarecrow at Socrates Sculpture Park, NY

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From May 11th Socrates Sculpture Park features Scarecrow, the largest installation in the park’s 28-year history, by artist Žilvinas Kempinas.

In his first presentation at Socrates Sculpture Park, Kempinas has realized an ambitious outdoor work that blankets a large portion of the 4.7 acre park. Minimal and magical, the sculpture is a 250-foot-long, thirteen-foot-high kinetic pathway composed of 200 stainless steel, mirrored poles connecting energetic slopes of silver Mylar ribbon overhead. With these two simple elements – poles and tape – Scarecrow activates the invisible forces of nature.

From a distance, Scarecrow appears as a clean, brilliant horizon. From within, it is an immersive, sensory experience: the Mylar ribbon is continuously in motion as it responds to wind-currents, echoing the natural flow of the nearby water, while the mirrored poles and silver tape reflect the light and sky as a shimmering vision alongside the East River. This ambitious sculpture is the artist’s first outdoor installation in the United States.

Kempinas is internationally acclaimed for his kinetic installations and controlled, minimalist works; notably, the artist represented Lithuania at the 2009 Venice Biennale with a site-specific installation entitled Tube, and more recently Double O at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010), and Slow Motion at Museum Tinguely, Switzerland (2013). Kempinas recently created his first outdoor sculpture for the Echigo Tsumari Art Field In Japan (2012), which was subsequently shown as part of his solo exhibition at Museum Tinguely. That work, made from Japanese snow posts and bird ribbons, was called Kakashi – or “scarecrow” in Japanese. At Socrates Sculpture Park, the artist’s latest Scarecrow expands on Kakashi in scale, shape, and setting.

Unlike his past large-scale installations in museums, galleries, and biennials, where the artist carefully calculates mechanical wind to create a desired effect, Kempinas’s outdoor sculptures are experimental and must adapt to fluctuating weather conditions. This fluidity creates endless possibilities for effect, but the artist continues to be meticulous in his arrangement, from the material he chose to reflect natural light, to the tension he created in the Mylar slopes that create audible sounds as the wind moves across the tape.

“We asked Žilvinas Kempinas to use the park as his canvas for his most ambitious work to date, and he has pushed the envelope with a tour de force combination of chaos and geometric order,” said John Hatfield, Executive Director of Socrates Sculpture Park. “His brilliant Scarecrow is the largest installation in the park’s 28-year history and we look forward to inviting the public to watch it come alive.”

Scarecrow is made possible, in part, by generous gifts from the Lewben Art Foundation and Martin Z. Margulies. The 2014 Exhibition Program at Socrates Sculpture Park is made possible by major support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Charina Endowment Fund, Cowles Charitable Trust, Mark di Suvero, the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation, Agnes Gund, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Lambent Foundation, Ivana Mestrovic, Plant Specialists, Shelley and Donald Rubin, and the Thomas W. Smith Foundation. Additional support provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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