''Shorter than the Day'' is a 2020 art installation by

Sarah Sze Sarah Sze (; born 1969) is an American artist widely recognized for challenging the boundaries of painting, installation, and architecture. Sze's sculptural practice ranges from slight gestures discovered in hidden spaces to expansive installat ...

which overhangs

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia ...

Terminal B's

baggage claim 200px, Baggage carousel In airport terminals, a baggage reclaim area is an area where arriving passengers claim checked-in baggage after disembarking from an airline flight. The alternative term baggage claim is used at airports in the US and ...

. The spherical structure is built from a network of suspended rods and 900 photographs of the New York sky shot from dawn to dusk. She was partly inspired by the Grand Central Terminal clock. At the time of her work's unveiling, she called it her most complex sculpture.

Description

The installation artist

designed ''Shorter than the Day'' as a spherical constellation of suspended rods. Around its edges are 900 photographs of the New York sky shot from dawn to dusk. As the Earth revolves around the sun, by walking the perimeter of the work, the viewer sees the sky shift from day to night. The sculpture hangs in

Terminal B, where it starts on the departures level atrium and passes through an opening in the floor into the baggage claim level. It is titled in reference to Emily Dickenson's poem, "Because I could not stop for Death".

Production

LaGuardia Gateway Partners and the

Public Art Fund Public Art Fund is an independent, non-profit arts organization founded in 1977 by Doris C. Freedman. The organization presents contemporary art in New York City's public spaces through a series of highly visible artists' projects, new commissions, ...

commissioned ''Shorter than the Day''. Sze wanted the installation to be "almost like a mirage", ethereal and fragile, while capturing the "feeling of shifting time and place" that goes with air travel. She was also inspired by the definitional Grand Central Terminal clock. The sculpture was fabricated by Amuneal, based in Philadelphia. Sze, a New York-based artist, was in the city during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

lockdown and so continued her work on the sculpture with her team during that time. The printed photographs are connected to the aluminum and steel rods with alligator clips. The work weighs five tons. At the time of the sculpture's unveiling, on June 11, 2020, Sze considered the work her most complex yet. The work was unveiled along that of three other artists in the terminal.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.amuneal.com/portfolio/shorter-than-the-day 2020 sculptures Installation art works LaGuardia Airport

Description

Production

References

Further reading

External links