Art on the Plaza 1: Primal Graphics 2002
Jim Campbell
February 20-October 1, 2002
The Ritz-Carlton, 2 West Street
Photo © 2002 Charlie Samuels
In Primal Graphics, American artist Jim Campbell’s first public sculpture in New York City, an outdoor structure composed of 386 lightbulbs situated on two 10 x 13-foot grids displayed a moving human figure resembling a shadow. As viewers approached, however, the figure not only lost form and became amorphous, but the lightbulb grid and its rudimentary nature became exceedingly apparent. For Campbell, the shadow with its poetic simplicity evokes absence, the passage of time, and feelings of loss, while the figure’s dissolution alludes to the transience of images, illusions of technology, and most importantly, the necessity to question what is simply perceived with the eye.
Primal Graphics was part of Art on the Plaza, a five-year series of sculptural commissions presented by Creative Time in partnership with Millenium Partners and the Battery Park City Authority. Site-specific, temporary, and multidisciplinary, the outdoor sculptures furthered Creative Time’s thirty-year history of enriching New York’s public spaces with adventurous public artworks of all disciplines and complemented the Battery Park City Authority’s renowned commitment to commissioning permanent public sculpture by internationally-acclaimed artists.
