Shorter Than the Day” by Professor Sarah Sze. This massive public sculpture embodies the passing of time and transcends human interaction through its placement at Laguardia airport. / by Mark Edwards

The Poem (bellow) was derived from a letter Dickinson wrote to Abiah Root where she asked, “Does not Eternity appear dreadful to you…. I often get thinking of it and it seems so dark to me that I almost wish there was no Eternity. To think that we must forever live and never cease to be. It seems as if Death which all so dread because it launches us upon an unknown world would be a relief to so endless a state of existence.” cited 25 august 2020.

These words conjure up in my mind what I feel about life at the moment, the temporality and the un-know, a sense of not being able to reach a point of certainty, is what I am experiencing a path that will lead to a fulfilling life of achievement. What is an achievement as to me this changes frequently? The article by David RobsonWords as feelings, ideophones, and what words when to read or said out loud create their own secondary meaning, this meaning may hold a more expressive emotive content than the original word or sentence. So when I read this letter from Dickinson my mind harks back to the Japanese lady Naurun ? Reiko Takahasi 78 as she prepares seaweed. What relevance does this have with Sze’s installation none really, except words like the ideophones create secondary meanings, and to me this is what art is all about?

sAMPAIGN_2019_02_06_03_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-b109279b4a-68667629 Cited 27 July 2020

Sarah Sze’s massive installation at the newly opened extended Laguardia international airport is such an imposing and exciting sphere yet it blends seamlessly into space balancing above a two-level void, where passengers move in and out coming and going from the airport transcending into another city or country.

The sculpture evokes the passage of time through an intricate constellation of photographs. Hundreds of images form a mirage-like sphere that appears to float in midair. Each photograph captures a snapshot of the sky above New York City taken over the course of one day. Collectively, they chart a cyclical journey from the pale yellow of dawn to the bright Or rather – He passed us.” ceases to amaze her installation works are massive yet they seem to effortlessly fit into these enormous spaces. What informs my practice is how Sze articulates so beautifully sculptural 3d forms that to me hold a bodily context, in which people in there every day will, (once the business is back to normal, post COVID19) will go about the moving busily around this airport occupying the space as if they were apart of it. When you look up into this sculpture from the ground, I wonder what thoughts you may evoke, to me the sense of another planet immediately come to mind, the size yet the openness, the light seems to drift within the sphere, like you could dangle in the air and float, move around it much like a maze where you dart in and out, not knowing which direction will take you to its innermost planet or which way will lead you back to earth.

https://zh-cn.facebook.com/Gagosian/videos/186779182734207/Because I could not stop for Death (479)

Emily Dickinson - 1830-1886

Because I could not stop for Death – 
He kindly stopped for me – 
The Carriage held but just Ourselves – 
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility – 

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring – 
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – 
We passed the Setting Sun – 

Or rather – He passed us – 
The Dews drew quivering and chill – 
For only Gossamer, my Gown – 
My Tippet – only Tulle – 

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground – 
The Roof was scarcely visible – 
The Cornice – in the Ground – 

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –