During the summer of 2009, Creative Time, in collaboration with Friends of the High Line and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, presented Spencer Finch’s installation The River That Flows Both Ways as the inaugural art commission on the High Line.
Inspired by the Hudson River, The River That Flows Both Ways is a poetic window installation, which documents a 700-minute journey Finch took on the river, during which he photographed the water every minute. The color of each pane was based on a single pixel point from every one of the photographs. The panes were arranged chronologically, in such a manner that time was essentially translated into a grid—reading from left to right and top to bottom—and capturing the varied reflective and translucent conditions of the water’s surface. The work, like the river, is experienced differently depending on the light levels and atmospheric conditions of the site. In this narrative orientation, the glass reveals Finch’s impossible quest for the color of water.
Photograph by Luke Stettner
Spencer Finch
The River That Flows Both Ways
Manhattan
2009
