‘I was thinking about scale, verticality and horizontality; for some works you have to look up and some works you have to look down, and these also become strategies of engagement,’ Littman told us, adding, ‘What I didn’t want to do with this installation is fight against the urban backdrop, the architecture, and the crowds too much – that would be a losing battle in space like Rockefeller Center.’
Kiki Smith’s bronze female sculpture, Rest Upon (2009), dozes with a lamb at the plaza’s flower-lined entrance on Fifth Avenue, creating an interesting juxtaposition between the figure’s demure posture and its position amid the dense crowds. Elsewhere, Nick Cave’s Untitled (2018) morphs from a tenacious Black Power fist into a larger-than-life gramophone.
Arguably the most striking intervention is Ibrahim Mahama’s jute flags, waving in lieu of the 192 UN flags that normally encircle the Rockefeller Center’s iconic ice skating ring. The specially commissioned installation of fifty flags, crafted by the artist in his native Ghana from used cocoa bean bags, delivers a strong political punch, touching on themes of slavery, economic disparity and oppression.
Rest Upon, 2009, by Kiki Smith, presented by Pace Gallery, Frieze Sculpture.
Archetype of Joint Effort, 2019, by José Dávila. © The artist. Courtesy of Sean Kelly, New York
Untitled, 2019, by Ibrahim Mahama, presented by White Cube.
Untitled, 2019, by Ibrahim Mahama, presented by White Cube. Courtesy of Frieze
Metnedaruth, 2009/2014, by Aaron Curry.
Cannibal Junkie, 2016, by Rochelle Goldberg. Courtesy of the artist and Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York
INFORMATION
Frieze Sculpture is on view until 28 June. For more information, visit the Frieze website
ADDRESS
Rockefeller Center
45 Rockefeller Plaza
New York