Hidemi Takagi
We are delighted to be sponsoring gallery artist Hidemi Takagi for an installation of her Blender series which comes to the plazas and visitor center of Times Square for the month of August as part of The Times Square Public Art Programme.
In front of millions of tourists who may never venture outside central Manhattan, Tagaki's project celebrates the diversity of New York's immigrant cultures through the simple designs and languages of packaged foods gathered through her many visits to small neighbourhood groceries in every borough.
Her bright and saturated images of immigrant food products collected from different boroughs in New York City will be the first public art project on the sides of trash receptacles stationed from 42nd to 47th Streets in the Broadway Plazas. All 95 photographs will also run as a video installation on 7 screens in the entrance to the Times Square Visitor Center.
The look of these food packages often has an old-fashioned feel: bright, saturated colors and outmoded designs that are rare both in Japan, where I'm from, and America, where I now live. Through this project I hope to show that art can transcend time and language even through the simplest imagery found on a candy wrapper. Blender is a lens into New York's immigrant communities and cultures -- Hidemi Takagi
Installation shots below. To see the photographs within the series please visit the artist page. Works in the series are available in a single edition of 75 at a size of 5 x 7".
© Ka-Man Tse for the Times Square Alliance
© Ka-Man Tse for the Times Square Alliance
© Ka-Man Tse for the Times Square Alliance
About Times Square Arts
Times Square is one of the world's most renowned urban destinations. Its dazzling lights and teeming crowds offer an overwhelming sense of possibility. Having helped to make Times Square clean and safe, the Times Square Alliance is now working to nurture the creativity, energy and edge that are the essence of Times Square. For that reason, we are working with a variety of arts-based curatorial groups to bring public art projects to Times Square. Times Square Arts, our pilot public art program, will incorporate diverse art elements into Times Square's streetscape, thereby expressing the area's uniqueness and enriching the pedestrian experience.
The Times Square Alliance develops techniques and relationships to bring temporary high-quality, cutting-edge art and performance to Times Square's public spaces, so that it is known globally as a place where ordinary people encounter authentic, ever-changing urban art in multiple forms and media. Recent projects and collaborations include Electronic Arts Intermix and MTV, Urban Remix, Liz Magic Laser's Flight, Counting Sheep, Creative Time's Key to the City, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Hip Hop Theater Festival, Play Me I'm Yours, and Performa 09.
The Times Square Public Art Programme is made possible in part by the NYC Cultural Innovation Fund of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.