Raphaele Shirley: Sunken City Preludes
PowerHouse Projects is pleased to present SUNKEN CITY PRELUDES- an in situ rooftop installation which will be presented against the mid-Manhattan skyline in the evening at dusk and the following morning at dawn.
For Sunken City Preludes, Shirley has created an inspired visual lexicon of architectural forms, culled and refashioned from industrial refuse and cast in latex and ceramic. The works, which are evocative of cities from either an inscrutable past or an unforeseeable future, will be suspended in water, submerged in light and presented against the looming and luminescent mid-Manhattan skyline, offering a poignant meditation on the glory and ephemerality of civilization.
Raphaele Shirley has worked collaboratively across artistic disciplines to author significant, landmark projects such as the International Fringe Festival and most recently the Perpetual Art Machine—a growing compendium of video art by artists from around the world. She has worked with Nam June Paik, Brian Eno and Shimone Attie among others to execute their technically complex projects. Throughout her collaborations, Shirley has quietly developed her own, distinct body of work, arresting and meditative, which transcends artistic fashion.
