New Art Installation Coming To A Plaza In The Flatiron District

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — A new art installation is coming to the Flatiron District in Lower Manhattan.

On Tuesday, the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and Van Alen Institute announced the winner of the seventh annual Flatiron Public Plaza Design Installation: "Point of Action" by Studio Cooke John.

Residents and neighborhood visitors will be able to see the installation from Nov. 23 to Jan. 1 in the Flatiron Public Plaza at West 23rd and 24th Streets on Broadway and Fifth Avenue.

The "Point of Action" exhibit will give visitors multiple opportunities to connect with other walkers within the installation's threshold. A collection of six-foot circles within the installation will create nine "spotlights," each circle has its own vertical frame, and ropes will weave through each frame to create a curtain.

People can then step through the curtain, and the lighting will make them more visible to other people within the installation.

"We are at a threshold during this pandemic," said Nina Cooke John, the founder and principal of Studio Cooke John. "Now that our eyes have been opened to realities that have been with us all along, how do we move forward? My hope is that Point of Action makes people think about how we connect to the people we see every day so that we can move forward together."

Studio Cooke John, the creator of the winning installation, is a multidisciplinary design studio that values "placemaking as a way to transform relationships between people and the built environment."

The installation will be open to the public daily, weather permitting, and visitors are encouraged to use #PointofAction on Twitter and Instagram to share pictures of themselves interacting with the installation.