Alive-Nesses: Proposal for Adaptation

Charles Mary Kubricht’s installation is inspired by dazzle, a type of protective design and coloration on animals designed by Abbott Thayer in America and developed into military camouflage by Norman Wilkinson in Great Britain during World War I. Dazzle camouflage was used to confuse the enemy by disguising the ships and complicating the tracking of the ship’s movement. For the High Line, the artist has painted black and white disruptive patterns on park storage containers, altering the view of these large structures from the northern end of the High Line.

Alive-nesses: Proposal for Adaptation gives Kubricht the opportunity to play with the intrinsic geometry of objects using her large black and white geometric compositions. Positioned within the elevated cityscape provided by the High Line, the artist’s treatment of the park storage containers distorts their appearance and translates the act of viewing them into a heightened visceral experience. This technique invites the viewer to move and change directions, altering familiar visual information and questioning the objects’ shape and form, as well as the viewer’s field of vision.