NEW YORK, May 22 – From “The legal alien in New York” to “The night out in Manhattan”, here now comes a walk through MoMa, Staten Island and Brooklyn Bridge.
MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) is a place full of creative art that sparks imaginative thinking and inspiration.
Located on West 53rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, it is a whole six floors of breathtaking art work.
From the work of Martin Kippenbenger, a German artist known for his exceptionally creative production in a range of media to that of Mona Hatoum, a British of Palestinian origin, all the art you would ever imagine is here.
But what caught my eye was in the Yoshiko and Akio Morita gallery. Displayed in this gallery was the work of Tehching Hsieh, a New York City based performance artist.
On the exhibition was his one year performance of between 1978 and 1979 where the artist locked himself in a small wooden cage. Throughout the whole year he survived only with a basin, a single bed, slippers, basic needs like tissue, toothpaste, toothbrush, soap and a towel.
The cage is displayed in the museum and the items that he survived with are left intact as he left them on September 30, 1979 when he walked out of his self-imposed life.
On the wall was the background of his work which stated that his friend Cheng Kuong photographed him on each of his daily visits. And true enough, there are 355 photographs of Hsieh in his small cage each signifying a single day of his self imprisoned life.
But there is a blank space which is a stand-in for the ten missing photographs. The artist shaved his hair at the beginning of his performance and the photographs on display showed his slowly growing hair.
Inside the cage he had nobody to talk to, nothing to read or listen to; nothing to do except think and wait for time to pass.
Talk of total madness, you need to go there and see it to believe it!
BROOKLYN BRIDGE
This is one of the oldest and longest suspension bridges in the United States of America and that stretches above 5,900 feet over the east river connecting New York’s boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
As my friends and I walk from one end of the bridge to the other it is hard not to notice the magnificent way in which the bridge is constructed.
It has the towers which bear the weight of four enormous cables and hold both cables and the roadway of the bridge high so that it doesn’t interfere with traffic on the river. A wire rope then connects the two anchorages across the East River
One side of the bridge consists of the railway line, another part is used by vehicles underneath and top of the bridge while there is an area below that is a purely green space where people go to sit and relax.
Here some are just idling around, there are those who are jogging around, others walking and others are relaxing as they read novels.
STATEN ISLAND
This is one of the five boroughs of New York. It is an island that is situated in the extreme southwest part of New York City.
To get to the Staten Island from Manhattan, one connects using the Staten Island ferry.
Crossing from lower Manhattan to the Staten Island aboard one of the most recent Staten Island Ferry boats, “Spirit of America” one can view with ease the Statue of liberty and Lower Manhattan.
It is said that The “Spirit of America” ferry honors how the people of Staten Island pulled together and sacrificed during the September 11 (9 11) tragedy.
Inside the 4,400 passenger ferry, one can choose to either sit inside or outside of the ferry where you can have a view of the lake, lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. The air is simply breath taking.
Next time you go to New York, try out this, you will not reglect it!
