62 possible monuments for new york’s high line
New York’s next High Line Plinth commissions remain several years away, though the debate around them has already begun. High Line Art has released 62 proposals for the seventh and eighth editions of the monumental public art program, scheduled to occupy the elevated site above Tenth Avenue in 2029 and 2030. Early visualizations place giant fruit, fragmented bodies, illuminated signs and unfamiliar creatures against the towers of Manhattan’s West Side.
The complete selection spans artists working across sculpture, installation and performance. Here, designboom takes a closer look at twelve proposals by familiar artists, moving from Kathleen Ryan’s jewel-encrusted apple core to Kelly Akashi’s passageway of enlarged steel lace.
The Plinth opened in 2019 as a dedicated platform for large-scale contemporary art, positioned at the edge of the High Line where the structure projects east over the avenue. Its changing commissions have included Pamela Rosenkranz’s branching pink Old Tree and Iván Argote’s beloved giant pigeon Dinosaur. Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s sandstone sculpture The Light That Shines Through the Universe currently occupies the site until Fall 2027, while the newly released proposals look years ahead — see the full list here!
kathleen ryan’s monumental apple core
Kathleen Ryan enlarges the remains of a bitten apple into Red Delicious, a glossy red shell with an interior assembled from abalone, crystals and stone. The familiar piece of discarded fruit becomes an oversized New York emblem, carrying references to desire, consumption and the city’s enduring association with the Big Apple.
Kathleen Ryan, Red Delicious
ali cherri fills a white bowl with decaying apples
Ali Cherri also turns to New York’s unofficial fruit. Apples in a White Bowl expands the familiar still life into a large white cement vessel filled with disproportionately sized bronze apples.
The fruit appears in an advanced state of decay, turning an image of domestic abundance toward decomposition and impermanence. From the street below, the bowl would read almost immediately; closer inspection reveals its contents collapsing under the passage of time.
Ali Cherri, Apples in a White Bowl
kelly akashi enlarges domestic lace in cor-ten steel
Kelly Akashi translates two delicate doilies into a 25-foot-tall Cor-Ten steel structure. Titled Double Negative, the proposal curves the perforated forms toward one another until they meet overhead, creating an open passage through which visitors can walk.
The scale shifts the doily from a domestic object associated with care and hand labor into a heavy piece of public infrastructure. Its lace pattern still allows light and views of the skyline to pass through the rusted steel.
Kelly Akashi, Double Negative
laure prouvost assembles a seven-armed collective body
Laure Prouvost proposes a fragmented terrazzo figure with seven arms. Titled DREAMING OF NO MORE FRONT TEARS, the work gathers separate pieces into a collective body whose hands hold a clementine, a flag and an infant, while other limbs end in glowing glass anemones.
Small openings near the figure’s base reveal intimate scenes within the larger body. The sculpture approaches the monument as something multiple and permeable, held together through gestures of care, protest and connection.
Laure Prouvost, DREAMING OF NO MORE FRONT TEARS
es devlin proposes a portrait of the present
Es Devlin enters the selection with A Portrait of the Present. The title continues the artist’s recent exploration of collective portraiture, including participatory works that invite members of the public to contribute their own faces and experiences to a changing image of society.
Placed on the Plinth, the proposal brings the language of portraiture into a site usually occupied by singular sculptural objects, asking how a monument might represent a population living through the same moment.
Es Devlin, A Portrait of the Present
ryan gander’s clock remains fixed at 88:88
Ryan Gander borrows the visual language of commercial signage for Time Piece (for everyone, everywhere, forever). A double-sided digital clock glows fluorescent yellow, its numbers permanently fixed at 88:88 while the colon continues to flash between them.
At the base, a black totem cycles through 500 statements concerning time. The sculpture keeps marking passing seconds while refusing to provide an accurate reading, separating the experience of time from the systems used to organize it.