Olafur Eliasson's New York City Waterfalls

[theflatbushgardens]

I think that the revenue generate by visitors to the site and the emotional value for us New Yorkers to be able to have a piece of nature nearby make this artwork highly valuable. Bravo to the artist!

[ExMachine]

'It's pretty'

Mr. Eliasons waterfalls echo his previous works many of which have been considered successful and well liked by the public (not an insignificant consideration in the commissionisng of public art). I do not believe they are of no artistic value.

At the very least they are a bit strange. They remind of the ship up a tree at the end of Herzogs 'Aguirre'.

[samaytara]

its nice seeing these waterfalls everyday coming home from work.

[LawrenceCharlesMille]

Yep, that there's big famous water.

Those wild and crazy foreigners. Olafur's for the environment ain't he?

Thank you James.

Best -

[spawndonacle]

Heck, I was going to unleash my inner geek and calculate the cost per minute to run these pumps when I encountered some high resolution images. The stream looks fairly thin. Does anyone know the gallons per minute that are being toppled? "Obscene" may be too strong. Conspicuous waste I'll stand behind. I had just spent the 100 degree day replacing the alternator in an American car unable to generate enough electricity to spark its plugs. This tainted my comments. I liked the scaffolding.

[RonSchira]

Loren, are you writing on this for the 'Rail? I don't know enough about the artist and am curious to your opinion. Is it art or public charlatanry?

[jameskalm]

Ron,

At this point I'm not going to write about "the Watterfalls", it's already gotten tons of ink including Jerry Saltz (you can read at art-net). Is it art? For 15 mill it better be. I just wish people could get up close and wet, and that it'd stay up during the winter and freeze. You could probably irrigate half of Africa with this equipment.

[davidfstarr]

Thanks James.

[spawndonacle]

These waterfalls don't fill a void for the city, rather they accentuate their absence. Have you all forgotten what a drive along the Columbia looks like? I found these ugly both in conception and execution. It is an obscene expenditure of energy. Power companies pump water as a way of conserving energy during times when generation exceeds demand. Later this elevated water regenerates electricity as it passes through turbines. Your meter is spinning. This is hurting the planet.

[RonSchira]

Spawn, I thought the same thing, a few hours north on the Canadian border delivers 175 thousand gallons every second until the lake dries up, now that's inspiring. These falls are a substitute for nature and in a strange way emphasize exactly what you are saying. Of course, if this were generating energy it would be green commendable, but the true profit is in the spectacle of public art and tourism it provokes, not it's view on ecology, more waste, more money. I'm rethinking my first statement.

[MrWowforever]

i agree with you guys, it's a corporate spectacle from mayor bloomberg to make him look 'cultured' to all the tourists. from high above in his corporate offices they throw down these 'sprinklers' like they're good for us. as a spectacle they are the equivalent of a roller coaster, no artistic value at all. just a ride, without the thrill. a bad ride disguised as art. bruce nauman spitting water out his mouth achieves much more with significantly less.

[LawrenceCharlesMille]

MrWow - I'm with you on this one. These civic art extravaganza's are good for the tourist trade. Plus Bloomberg is trying to make up for the damage Mayor Rudy G. caused when he publicly acted like a school-marm about the Sensation show. So now we have Mc'art. Branded like Louis Vuitton, BMW, riding on the crowd pleasing Tate Weather Project (yes, it can be done with smoke and mirrors).

i feel better now.

[MrWowforever]

LCM-i don't want to sound like a grump, i just want more (or less!) from public art. Gordan matta-clark called public art he detested as 'plaza plop', these feel like that to me.

[RonSchira]

Still a great piece of reportage and, I imagine much more impressive in person when you are a captive of the city and not familiar with the real thing, it's a symptom of the alienation and separativeness of our hi-def culture, the simulation is the reality, hmm, I've heard this before but not on this scale.

[RonSchira]

Not bad for man-made waterfalls, huh? Great bit of journalism there, JK, I like the night views.

[Fish02138]

I would have rated this a 5 star but you didn't get Kate whats-her-name from Art News to make any unedited, first-impression comments on the piece. I guess I'll have to buy an Art News!

Nice shots of the piece James.

[MrWowforever]

bruce nauman's piece Fountain puts these corporate sprinklers to shame.