Press Release
Artist Bio
Sponsorship
Location
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wire and laser print on acetate

Parklife

October 9, 2002 -
September 15, 2003

MetroTech Center, Brooklyn

Public Art Fund and the Commons Associates are proud to present a new exhibition of contemporary art at MetroTech Center. Parklife continues MetroTech's commitment to supporting the work of emerging New York artists. Each year artists are asked to respond to the Commons, the public spaces surrounding the vibrant downtown areas of MetroTech Center and Brooklyn Polytechnic. The artists selected for this year's exhibition - Isidro Blasco, Liz Craft, Peter Gould, Elke Lehmann, and Franco Mondini-Ruiz - have each created new works that react to the area's landscaped surroundings.

For Black and White Tree, a site-specific project at MetroTech Center, Lehmann has focused on a single tree, one of the dozens of trees that line the perimeter of the Commons. Lehmann made black-and-white photographic reproductions of the tree's leaves, undertaking a meticulous process of cutting the leaves and affixing a wire stem to each one. In autumn, before the leaves begin to drop, every natural leaf on the tree will be paired with a black-and white duplicate, creating leaf clusters that resemble x-ray versions of the real thing. As the natural leaves fall, the reproductions will become increasingly dominant and, in the winter months, the tree will be a shadow version of itself, covered only with colorless leaves.

Artist Bio
Elke Lehmann, a German-born artist living in New York, produces sculpture, video, and site-specific installations. In her work, Lehmann often responds to the physical and historical dimensions of the sites she selects for her installations, intervening with business-as-usual and encouraging awareness of one's surroundings. "I extract details from the site, magnifying their potential for suggesting meaning," Lehmann says. In several recent projects, she has focused on the subject of animals and nature, introducing elements of wildlife into contained gallery spaces or other public venues in a way that prompts simultaneous amusement, wonder and unease.
Please visit www.elkelehmann.com to view more of her projects.

Sponsorship
Parklife at MetroTech Center is part of an ongoing program organized by the Public Art Fund and sponsored by MetroTech Commons Associates, an organization that consists of MetroTech companies Bear Stearns & Company, KeySpan Energy, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Forest City Ratner Companies, Polytechnic University, Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), DOITT and E-911. Special thanks to First New York Management.

Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported in part with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and through generous contributions from corporations, foundations, and individuals.

Location
MetroTech Center is situated in the in the Civic Center/Borough Hall area of Downtown Brooklyn.
By Subway: M, N, or R to Lawrence Street Station or the A, C, or F to Jay Street/ Borough Hall, exit at Myrtle Promenade.