April 15 - August 2013
On the High Line between West 25th and West 26th Streets

High Line Art, presented by Friends of the High Line, is pleased to announce that Uri Aran will present Untitled (Good and Bad), a playful sound installation that will turn the High Line between West 25th and West 26th Streets into an imaginary jungle.

Born in Israel and based in New York, Aran works in different mediums, such as sculpture, drawing, and video, to investigate how language produces meaning and experience, and also how it has the ability to create a hierarchy. Aran is known for his sculptural installations that often feature seemingly chaotic arrangements of found objects installed on tabletops – a gesture which describes intricate microcosms and highlights problems of organization and categorization. In his drawings and videos, Aran often plays with human feelings that we project onto animals.

For the High Line, Aran will present a sound work that explores how we use personification and animal metaphors to define human behavior in our daily conversations. Working with a professional voice actor who uses a formal, slightly affected pronunciation, Aran has created a sound track that will emanate softly from the planting beds below the elevated pathway on the High Line between West 25th and West 26th Streets. The sound track features the actor reading a list of creatures, from common ones, like the household cat and the spider, to more wild ones, such the platypus and the shark, each described as “good” or “bad.” Serious and at times comical, the expressionless tone of the actor’s voice will clash with the definition of these creatures as either “good” or “bad,” sparking dialogue about the arbitrary nature of classification in language.

“Uri Aran’s imaginative works have always amazed me,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator and Director of High Line Art. “I look forward to watching visitors experience this installation and how they react to it as they walk along the High Line.”

About the Artist

Uri Aran lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited internationally including venues such as the Jewish Museum of Belgium, Brussels; MoMA PS1, New York; Sculpture Center, New York; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel; and LAX Art, Los Angeles, among others. Aran holds a MFA from Columbia University and attended Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem and The Cooper Union, New York.

Support

This High Line Art Commission is presented by Friends of the High Line and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. High Line Art Commissions are made possible by Donald R. Mullen, Jr., additional support from Vital Projects Fund, Inc. This program is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State's 62 counties.

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