Nicholas Fraser

All Consuming

cedar, steel and birdseed, May-November 2015

 

A variation of a city distance sign, with two critical deviations: the cities named are extinct and the texts are edible cakes of birdseed. As hungry wildlife consume the birdseed, they  transform legible characters into unidentifiable forms, resembling the ruins of cities uncovered by archaeologists.

 

Located on the southern shoreline of Randall’s Island Park, the sculpture is continually in flux, evoking the cyclical nature of cities by harnessing natural processes to visually echo decay and ephemerality.

 

Underscoring the diversity of New York by naming cities from a wide range of cultures, the sculpture positions both viewers and the city within a broad historical continuum, squarely in the line of succession of our forebears. The cities named may be dead, but their cultural heritage lives on in their direct descendants, all well represented in the boroughs neighboring Randall’s Island.

 

Time Lapse Video

 

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