Artist Tatzu Nishi creates an elevated room for ’Discovering Columbus’
![Columbus statue](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/GqbAi9WYiVgFNWjHGz8b79-415-80.jpg)
Even if you work in the Time Warner Center, you've never seen Columbus Circle as New Yorkers will this autumn, thanks to Tatzu Nishi's latest exhibition.
The Japanese artist, known for his elevated 'rooms' that allow visitors to connect face-to-face with historical monuments, has transformed the space around the iconic Columbus statue into a contemporary living room.
Mounted upon an obelisk at a height of 20m, 'Discovering Columbus' is a loft-style lounge with huge windows onto Central Park and the bustle of midtown - views that Columbus would surely boast about if he were still with us. But it's rather the prospect of entrée to the forever inaccessible 120-year-old marble statue that is the highlight. (Columbus has been given a good scrub for the occasion.)
Few artists have managed to marry architecture and interior design with spectacle and guerrilla-style goodwill quite like Nishi, who recently dismantled his successful pop-up Hotel Gent [sic], a guest suite crafted around the 100-year-old clock tower at Ghent's Sint-Pieters train station. Like in Ghent, New Yorkers keen to witness Nishi's 'spatial encounter' have to climb six flights of scaffolding to the floating room, where the artist has installed all the mod cons of the midtown apartment, including his own bespoke 'American pop culture' wallpaper.
The environment he creates in effect contemporises the marble relic, which appears remarkably in synch within a modern context. Alas, like most publicly funded outdoor art exhibitions, it'll close in November, before the harsh winter climate dampens the New Yorkers' enthusiasm for exploration.
This photograph of the under-construction artwork shows the 20m base on to which the room is mounted for a close encounter with Columbus
courtesy Public Art Fund, NY
Few artists have managed to marry architecture and interior design with spectacle and guerrilla-style goodwill quite like Tatzu Nishi
courtesy Public Art Fund, NY
The room has large windows onto the city, but it's the prospect of greeting the 120-year-old marble statue face to face that is the highlight
courtesy Public Art Fund, NY
Nishi has installed all the mod cons of the New York apartment: a sofa, coffee table, TV...
courtesy Public Art Fund, NY
...and his own bespoke ‘American pop culture’ wallpaper
courtesy Public Art Fund, NY
Visitors climb six flights up scaffolding to access the room
courtesy Public Art Fund, NY
The sculpture was cleaned up for the event
courtesy Public Art Fund, NY
Tatzu Nishi's previous public artwork, 'Hotel Gent', in Belgium has only just been dismantled
He constructed a suite around the clock tower at Ghent's Sint-Pieters train station
The 100-year-old clock tower became part of the furniture in the 'guest room'
It was restored for the occasion, along with the rest of the station
Nishi spelt out his alias, 'Tazu Rous', in mosaic on the bathroom floor
The pop-up lasted for several few months
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathy
Creative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
By Hannah Silver Published
-
50 of America’s top creatives, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh
Photographed exclusively for Wallpaper* by Inez & Vinoodh, we present a portfolio of 50 creatives driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic evolution
By Dan Howarth Published
-
Nona Faustine confronts the past in New York
Artist Nona Faustine reframes New York's colonial past in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
By Hannah Silver Published
-
How the west won: Ivan McClellan is amplifying the intrepid beauty of Black cowboy culture
In his new book, 'Eight Seconds: Black Cowboy Culture', Ivan McClellan draws us into the world of Black rodeo. Wallpaper* meets the photographer ahead of his Juneteenth Rodeo
By Tracy Kawalik Published
-
Casa Bosques’ queer-themed book curation comes to New York’s East Village
In Pride Month 2024, Casa Bosques’ pop-up bookstore in The Standard hotel, East Village, offers a stylish haven for literary mavens
By Hannah Silver Published
-
‘Very few museums were interested in my work until recently’: Amalia Mesa-Bains on her first-ever retrospective
‘Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory’ is a long-overdue exhibition at El Museo del Barrio in New York celebrating five decades of the trailblazing Chicanx artist
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Frieze New York 2024: what to see in and around the city
Frieze New York 2024 (until Sunday 5 May) sees the city’s ample spring season programming celebrated at The Shed
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Calling NYC grads! Sarabande Foundation invites you to an industry masterclass to pave way into the creative world
‘What Now?’ by Sarabande Foundation is a post-college guide to support graduates in making their next steps, with advice from the likes of Burberry, Thom Browne, and more
By Tianna Williams Published