the whitney on the highline

they may still be deliberating on their proposed $680
million venture in the meatpacking district, however the
whitney museum is already sowing its seeds with some
temporary outdoor installations at the high line park site
around gansevoort and washington streets.

featuring three artists chosen for their ability to work with
digital technologies long association with the museum work
will be on show from the following three artists and
collaborators: guyton\walker (the collaborative efforts of
new york painters wade guyton and kelley walker),
tauba auerbach (whose photo-realistic work can presently
be seen in the whitney biennale) and barbara kruger who is
known for layering confronting statements over photographic
works.

the work is intended to speak about the site and its neighborhood,
the highline park is one of many improvements that have been made
to the area and the whitney commissoned works will be on show over
the summer and removed come october.

the high line park was once an elevated line built in the 1930s to
remove dangerous trains from the street. initially part of the west side
improvement project, it was then in the 1980s after its last train
passed over pulling three carloads of frozen turkeys it was in use no
more. with much talk of the site being demolished from then until
1999 a 'friends of the high line' group was founded and discussion
of preservation got underway.

in 2001 the design trust for public space commissioned architect casey
jones to conduct research and after much planning and framework the plan
began to gain city support. after a call for submissions for the design of
the park it was awarded to james corner field operations (a landscape
architecture firm) and diller scofidio + renfro (an architecture firm).
eight years later in june 2009 the high line park opened to the public.

for more in depth information on the high line park check their site:

http://www.thehighline.org/

for more on the whitney museum head to:

http://www.whitney.org/

and on the whitney's downtown installations please read the new york
times article, by carol vogel here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/arts/design/16vogel.html?ref
=design

** image by guyton\walker, sourced from nytimes.com