Shortlisted Proposals for the Fifth and Sixth Plinth Commissions

After collecting and reviewing 56 proposals from 49 international artists nominated by an international advisory committee, High Line Art has shortlisted 12 proposals for further consideration for the fifth and sixth High Line Plinth commissions. The selected proposals—by artists Dana Awartani, Leilah Babirye, Natalie Ball, Sammy Baloji, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Rachel Feinstein, Camille Henrot, Mire Lee, Candice Lin, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Emeka Ogboh, and Gala Porras-Kim—will be on view as sculptural maquettes on the High Line for visitors to view and send feedback on what they would like to see realized.

The artists hail from five continents, coming from Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uganda, Vietnam, and throughout the US. They bring a range of perspectives, with proposals that touch on geology and archaeology, abstraction, historical storytelling, monumentality, spirituality, and the natural world.

Two out of the 12 shortlisted proposals will be selected as the fifth and sixth High Line Plinth commissions, to be installed in 2026 and 2027 respectively. Each Plinth commission will be on view for 18 months.

View the shortlisted artists and proposals in the galleries below. We also invite you to share your feedback →

Dana Awartani (b. 1987, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. An Ode to Our Ancestors is a 12-pointed stone sculpture inspired by sacred geometry. In particular, the work looks to six-fold symmetry, which is ever-present in nature—from living tissue cells to flowers and snowflakes. Awartani looks at the ecosystem of the High Line—its bees and birds, hives and nests, and trees and blades of grass alike, while also recalling a bygone tradition of stone masonry in New York’s domestic architecture. Through its materiality, An Ode to Our Ancestors advocates for craft traditions that value the handmade over the industrialized, emphasize community, and are sustained by generational knowledge, slow production, and durable design. Together, these elements encourage a more harmonious relationship between people, cities, and the natural world.

Leilah Babirye (b. 1985, Kampala, Uganda) lives in New York. Agali Awamu (Togetherness) is a 16-foot-tall cast bronze sculpture featuring two genderless faces connected through intricate, interwoven rubber braids. The faces point vigilantly in two opposite directions, watching over passersby underneath. Babirye designed the piece specifically to transcend the dynamics of race, gender, and identity, allowing viewers to make their own interpretations. The Lugandan phrase agali awamu alludes to “togetherness,” but the term also encompasses the communal spirit of uniting in solidarity and looking out for one another. The two figures becoming one, interlocked in a protective embrace, embodies the healing process of gathering with one’s chosen family.

Natalie Ball (b. 1980, Portland, Oregon) lives in Chiloquin, Oregon. KISS THE KOPTU represents the koptu and c’waam, two sacred suckerfish that have existed for millions of years and are endemic to the Upper Klamath Basin on the Klamath Tribes territory in Oregon. Ball is attempting to counter a non-tribal narrative that devalues them as “trash fish” in order to legitimize unsustainable agriculture. The work carries the tribes’ kinship design to celebrate tribal sovereignty and the community who continue to love and protect the fish relatives. KISS THE KOPTU encourages viewers to playfully engage and learn as they witness the sacred fish being honored through scale, color, and gesture, as the people of the Klamath Tribes continue to fight for their existence.

Sammy Baloji (b. 1978, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo) lives in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Brussels, Belgium. Listen Closely: You’ll Hear Their Feet Beating Out And Beating Out is an oversized horn that references the musical histories of the American South. In the 1730s, “free mulattos, blacks, and Native Americans” were required to serve in the military, but as drummers and trumpeters, forbidden to bear arms due to fears of uprisings. These instruments came to symbolize community and solidarity, making music, rather than weapons, a tool for resistance. By the early 19th century, New Orleans’ Congo Square had become the locus for these traditions—hundreds of enslaved Africans would gather weekly to relax and play music, which eventually led to the creation of New Orleans jazz and rhythm and blues. The work sits atop a pedestal that resembles a mound of sugar, a nod to the colonization of the Caribbean, and the horn’s surface is embossed with marks that refer to Congolese traditions of body scarification. With this work, Baloji provides a thought-provoking meditation on the interconnection of global, social, and racial histories. Please note that the maquette is a slightly more reddish copper tone than the proposal. The color reflected in the rendering is more true to the final Plinth proposal.

Abraham Cruzvillegas (b. 1968, Mexico City, Mexico) lives in Mexico City, Mexico. Untitled Pupa represents the chrysalis of a monarch butterfly and a milkweed branch. The mostly green sculpture stands on a matte pink painted plinth, producing a contrast in color, texture, and brightness. Both the chrysalis and the branch are designed to be representative of their real-life counterparts, producing another contrast with the urban landscape. Monarch butterflies travel annually from their sanctuary in Michoacán, in the West of Mexico, the land of some of the artist’s family ancestors, to the US and Canada, passing through New York City. Cruzvillegas introduces the monarch and its home as a metaphor for migration and travel not only of animals and plants, but also of human beings around the globe, and the challenging circumstances found along these often urgently necessary pathways.

Rachel Feinstein (b. 1971, Defiance, Arizona) lives in New York, New York. Castle on the Rock recalls romantic imagery from Renaissance paintings depicting a distant castle on a hill, a beacon surrounded by nature. Feinstein considers the emotions this sight might have inspired in weary travelers, viewing the Spur as a new site of rest and respite for those in New York City. The 18-foot-tall sculpture is made completely out of carved green jasper from Brazil, and features a road, castle, and inner ring in polished brass. Visitors will be able to sit in the work’s carved-out center, encouraging direct engagement with the sculpture.

Camille Henrot (b. 1978, Paris, France) lives in New York, New York. You Were Found is a larger-than-life bronze sculpture of a barn owl. Traditionally, the barn owl is associated with keen observation, intelligence, and witchcraft and magic, symbolizing the afterlife. Though nocturnal and rarely seen, the owl at the Spur makes itself known—taking a rest from flight on the Plinth. One of its legs is wounded, replaced with a wooden peg. Its tail unfurls into a scroll—the top sheet of paper in a stack of pages that come to form its perch, the pedestal. The work’s title suggests a simultaneous resistance to perception and control, alongside a desire to be seen. Has the owl found its prey, or have you found her? Are we bird-watching, or do the birds watch us? Henrot’s sculpture is a meditation on seeing and being seen, highlighting the idea that observation is an innately active posture.

Mire Lee (b. 1988, Seoul, South Korea) lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Leaking Machine resembles a metallic silver chandelier or a dreamcatcher topped with multiple “ribs” that hold water hoses that endlessly leak. Several “rain chains” are hung from the leakage points of the hoses, covered with palm-sized objects gathered from the surrounding community. Lee imagines hosting an open call where individuals can donate light-reflective materials, such as aluminum cans, metal wires, and glass. Participants are also encouraged to put their energy and spirit into the objects, wishing for the health and vitality of their loved ones. The Leaking Machine is inspired by artist Emery Blagdon’s work, The Healing Machine (1955 – 1986), a composition of handmade objects intended to channel the healing powers of the earth.

Candice Lin (b. 1977, Concord, Massachusetts) lives in Los Angeles, California. Cat-Demon Protector is a 13-foot-tall, colorfully painted, aluminum sculpture of a “cat-demon.” The cat stands in a traditional pose from qigong, an ancient Chinese practice of coordinated movements and breathwork that encourages good health and spirituality. Additionally, Cat-Demon Protector’s head is mechanized to rotate 360 degrees at the top of every hour—resembling an Exorcist-like cuckoo clock. The work will be complemented by an AR component that engages viewers with an animation of Cat-Demon Protector teaching qigong. Similar instructions are also etched into the aluminum-cladded plinth. These elements encourage viewers to slow down; Lin views the passage of time and the bodies moving in unison through qigong flow as core to the work—becoming a form of living public sculpture.

See Candice Lin’s AR component →

Tuan Andrew Nguyen (b. 1976, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The Light that Shines Through the Universe is a 30-foot-tall sandstone homage to the Bamiyan Buddhas, two 6th-century monumental statues in central Afghanistan that were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban. Nguyen symbolically casts the Buddha’s hands, missing from the original monuments long before their final destruction, from brass artillery shells. They are arranged in mudras—or ritual gestures—that express fearlessness in compassion. The work’s title is a direct reference to the nickname used by local communities for the larger of the two Buddhas: “Salsal,” which means “the light shines through the universe.” This broken, rebuilt, resilient figure suggests the use of memory and the concept of reincarnation as a tool for renewal and healing. Please note that the maquette is made out of gray sandstone and the final Plinth proposal would be made from yellow sandstone, as represented in the rendering.

Emeka Ogboh (b. 1977, Enugu, Nigeria) lives in Lagos, Nigeria, and Berlin, Germany. The ijele is a revered emblem among the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria. The nearly 15-foot-tall, intricately crafted mask is carried in masquerade performances on special occasions and features colorful depictions of humans, animals, and spiritual motifs. Ogboh’s Ijele 2.0 updates this tradition, incorporating modern-day representations to exemplify the adaptability and relevance of this cultural practice. The work is adorned with puppet-like effigies of various 21st-century figures—Barack Obama, Xi Jinping, Angela Merkel, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Pope Francis, Elon Musk, and Vladimir Putin, among others. Ogboh also revised the original banners to include contemporary symbols referring to cryptocurrency, global protest, the COVID-19 virus, climate change, and artificial intelligence. Ijele 2.0 explores how collective memories and histories can be translated, transformed, and encoded into different contexts.

Gala Porras-Kim (b. 1984, Bogotá, Colombia) lives in Los Angeles, California. Future spaces replicate earlier spaces is a sculpture based on a Strombus conch which was often used throughout global antiquity as an instrument in rituals and as a decorative object. The exterior of the sculpture is pearlescent and marked with etchings inspired by traditional Mayan conch carving, and the work is propped vertically on a base made with shell stone. The work will play music made from the sounds of an 18,000-year-old conch instrument. On view at the Spur, Future spaces replicate earlier spaces considers the history of the nearby ports and connects our contemporary moment to an ancient, cyclical past.

Press play to listen:
18,000 Conch Instrument Sound. Sound file courtesy of Artist.