FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Elisa Smilovitz / 551.486.3273 / [email protected]
Lucy Gardner, Prospect Park Alliance / 917.842.9559 / [email protected]
BRIC and Prospect Park Alliance, in Partnership with NYC Parks, Announce Sarah E. Brook Installation at Prospect Park’s Lena Horne Bandshell
The Need You Know It Is A Letting Light explores how identity is formed within psychic space and will be the first time sculpture is presented alongside a mural at the Lena Horne Bandshell.
On view October 15, 2022 – May 5, 2023
Opening Reception October 16, 2022 11:00am – 1:00pm
Rendering of Sarah E. Brook: The Need You Know It Is A Letting Light
(BROOKLYN, NY – October 6, 2022) BRIC, a leading contemporary, multi-disciplinary arts and media institution anchored in downtown Brooklyn, and Prospect Park Alliance, the nonprofit that sustains Prospect Park, in partnership with NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program, are pleased to present a new installation by Sarah E. Brook at the Lena Horne Bandshell at Prospect Park. The Need You Know It Is A Letting Light is a set of three abstract wooden sculptures and an accompanying mural that expand the artist’s exploration of communication between external and internal psychic space. This is the first time sculpture will be present alongside a mural at the bandshell. The installation will be on view from October 15, 2022 – May 5, 2023 with an opening celebration on October 16 from 11am – 1pm. RSVP encouraged.
The mural’s colors of red, yellow, and green are sourced from the natural beauty of Prospect Park, and both draw viewers in from the park and radiate out from the Bandshell and stage into the park, reflecting the function of a bandshell to expand voices. The repurposed wood sculptures respond to the mural’s colors, expressing warm-hued shadows that appear to be held within. The sculptures’ material communicate their singularity through wear – a crooked nail, an empty hole, a worn edge – and in their gentle leaning formation, the sculptures can be read as bodies supporting one another.
Sculptural abstraction, for Brook, is based on a commitment to creating spaces for queer, gender nonconforming, and trans folks to experiment with embodied perception, encouraging and affirming a multisensory experience of being whole in the world. Brook’s geometric sculptural forms utilize salvaged wood that both contains the history and identity of each particular piece and expands that singularity outward through painted gradients. They communicate the possibility of a selfhood that can be known and shared, and is, in fact, capable of moving beyond the confines of a body and environment.
Specificity for Brook is key to the possibility of vastness – it is not by leaving the particular self behind, but by moving deeply into the exact needs, desires, and knowings of that self that creates a path toward perceiving a wider world of creatively expanded possibilities. The specific and the infinite are intimately entwined. Brook’s relationship to expanding space is both personal and contextual, formed by the world around us. Nature, for Brook, is often a muse for testing out these possibilities, and the New York City park system has become a site for many of their interventions in space. Their understanding of expansiveness is influenced by their childhood in the Nevada desert as well as pioneering land and light artists of the Western United States Nancy Holt, Larry Bell, and Agnes Martin.
Brook is a longtime collaborator of BRIC; they were a BRIClab Artist-in-Residence in 2018 and a part of the 2019 BRIC Biennial in 2019.
Jenny Gerow, Curator of the mural and Contemporary Art Curator at BRIC, said
“Sarah E Brook’s bandshell installation will be the largest commission so far for the artist and, like the two installations that came before it, engages with the social and political issues of the moment. A refreshing take on identity, the piece is less of a declaration of one’s self through figuration and instead a deep desire through form to engage and open up a discussion about how one’s identity is formed, such as through society and one’s environment. Brooks’ work is quiet and introspective and, in that quietness, a real sense of possibility.”
James Snow, Interim President of Prospect Park Alliance, said:
“Prospect Park Alliance is honored to once again partner with BRIC and the NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program to bring this monumental multimedia work to Brooklyn’s Backyard. It is wonderful to have the opportunity to bring art to our community year-round at the Lena Horne Bandshell, and we look forward to experiencing this piece throughout the coming season with our neighbors and visitors.”
ABOUT SARAH E. BROOK
Brook (They/them) has had solo exhibitions at Open Source Gallery, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Gowanus Loft, and Greenpoint Gallery, all Brooklyn, NY, and Turley Gallery, Hudson, NY. They have also exhibited in group shows at BRIC, Nha Minh, A.I.R. Gallery, Carrie Able Gallery, Ground Floor Gallery, and Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, all Brooklyn, NY; Lazy Susan Gallery, The Artist Gardener, Lithuanian Alliance, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Sculpture Center, Maison10, Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, Lesley Heller Workspace, Field Projects, Front Art Space, Hot Wood Arts, David & Schweitzer Contemporary, all NY; Turley Gallery, Hudson, NY; Glass House Project, New Paltz, NY; and Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor, NY. They participated in the BRIClab Video Art Fellowship. Brook holds a BA from the University of Notre Dame and an MSW from Arizona State University.
ABOUT BRIC
BRIC is a leading arts and media institution whose work spans contemporary visual and performing arts, media, and civic action. Since 1979, we have presented the world-renowned BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at the Prospect Park Bandshell. As a creative catalyst for our community, we centralize diverse voices that take risks and drive culture forward. BRIC is building Brooklyn’s creative future. Learn more at BRICartsmedia.org.
ABOUT PROSPECT PARK ALLIANCE
Prospect Park Alliance is the non-profit organization that sustains, restores and advances Prospect Park, “Brooklyn’s Backyard,” in partnership with the City. The Alliance was founded in 1987 to help restore the park after a long period of deterioration and decline. Today, the Alliance provides critical staff and resources that keep the Park green and vibrant for the diverse communities that call Brooklyn home. The Alliance cares for the woodlands and natural areas, restores buildings and landscapes, creates innovative new destinations, and provides volunteer, education and recreation programs. Learn more at prospectpark.org.
ABOUT NYC PARKS’ ART IN THE PARKS PROGRAM
For over 50 years, NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program has brought contemporary public artworks to the city’s parks, making New York City one of the world’s largest open-air galleries. The agency has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, NYC Parks has collaborated with arts organizations and artists to produce over 2,000 public artworks by 1,300 notable and emerging artists in over 200 parks. For more information about the program visit nyc.gov/parks/art.
BRIC’s Contemporary Art program benefits from generous private funding from the Auchincloss Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Harold and Colene Brown Family Foundation, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, TD Charitable Foundation, Harpo Foundation, and numerous individual supporters. Public support is provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts, and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.
General support for BRIC is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, M&T Charitable Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Scherman Foundation, Tiger Baron Foundation, and individual donors.
