They feature artists such as John Ahearn, with his politically correct sculpture of ghetto kids. Sculpture is bound to look scrappy on that scuzzy, intermittent patch of grass. Indeed, it insists on it. Like Mark di Suvero , one of the park's founders, these artists like to toy with junk. Jene Highstein stands as another older contributor.
Works often return to industrial materials, with a ramshackle, castoff kind of construction.
It is as if art, nature, and the community had fought back against the factories and failed. Come to think of it, in the long run, perhaps they have. The good fight Shows here stay more earnest than in other city parks, but I hit upon an uncommonly nice day to fight the good fight. Their stage looked at least as jury-rigged, in fact, as any sculpture. Families peered happily at the waterfront through Aris's Kaleidoscope , and one really did need signs telling kids not to climb on the art.