A window is multi-functional — it is a barrier and an opening; an exposure to public view and an enclosure of private space; a frame through which we see out and an entry point for natural light to enter. It is at its core an intersection of the natural and the man-made, the point at which interior and exterior meet.
Bergen Street Windows is a public installation by artist Ryan Frank that combines two iconic American landscapes: a historic Brooklyn block and the mythologized, singular terrain of the Southwest. It is part of an ongoing body of work in which Frank creates faux views within building windows, transforming a familiar urban scene into one that is picturesque, idyllic, and spatially transformative.
For Bergen Street Windows, Frank has converted a number of residential and storefront windows into light boxes displaying backlit photographs of the Utah desert. Images of bright red rocks and vibrant blue skies are framed along a sequence of urban windows and doorways, creating a visual contrast between two distant, yet metaphysically related, environments. Pedestrians walking down Bergen Street will be given a unique view of a monumental landscape, as one would hiking along a trail or driving along a scenic two lane road.
Website: ryanmfrank.com
On View
October 7–December 31
Location
North side of Bergen Street between Smith Street and Boerum Place
Visible 24/7