Thursday, December 16, 2010

Construction Site Art: "RENDERING LEONARD" by Helen Dennis

RENDERING LEONARD  is a public art installation created by artist Helen Dennis along the 200 ft of plywood wall that surround 56 Leonard Street (corner Church Street) in downtown Manhattan. It is part of the Downtown Alliance Re:Construction public art program initiative. 
From the caption of the installation:
Dennis’ work portrays ghostly traces of the surrounding urban environment around Leonard Street and beyond. Through layers of hand-rendered drawings exposed onto photographic paper, Helene manages to capture the energy of the City and it’s constant state of flux. The large scale of the work physically immerses the viewer into a portrait of New York and the urban architectural environment across the Downtown area. Through her continuous study of the metropolis that surrounds us, Helene Dennis offers us a complete 3 dimensional vision of the city’s kinetic energy. Her unique technique sits on the boundary of photography and drawing. She introduces layers of intense fine white lines, which build up the image before the viewer. These architectural renderings are then introduced to the photographic process in a similar way that one would use a negative. The result challenges the conventional reading of a photographic image and enhances the infinite traces that compose the City.

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