February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
A public art project dreamed up by a group dubbed Big Apple Events, the Big Apple Festival is a two-month-long promotion for charity that allowed artists to submit designs for more than 300 apple molds being displayed around Manhattan, either individually, in bushels, or as entire orchards.
The artists worked on their apples throughout August and are now on display throughout the city. The exhibition will remain on the streets through the end of October, and in late November the auctioneer Sotheby’s will put the apples up for auction to benefit charity.
One of the stars of the show is Aislinn Harrington, an Irish-American artist whose interest in public art and the Fest’s goals were perfectly aligned.
A self-professed “multi-media artist,” Harrington counts public art as the main focus of her work.
“It’s art without pretense,” Harrington said, “and it benefits a worthy cause.”
That synergy landed Harrington’s design, “Big Apple Blooms,” at the forefront of the Fest. Her apple is sitting in the window of 529 Fifth Ave., at 44th Street, an empty storefront that was converted into a studio for the artists to work in. Plans are currently under way to make it into a gallery sometime in mid-September, according to Silverstein Properties, which owns the building.
“Big Apple Blooms,” which took Harrington four weeks to make, ties into the Big Apple Fest’s goal of celebrating the culture and history of some aspect of New York City.
Having attended such institutes as the Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and New York University, Harrington is well-versed in her craft.
“Big Apple Blooms” is a tribute to the flower district of New York, a locally known stretch of wholesale florists on 28th street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
Harrington’s interest in the project suited her social responsibility as well as her artistic nature.
She has previously shown her work in public spaces, such as festivals and courthouses, near her home in Burlington County, New Jersey. She has also participated in another citywide art project by decorating molds of dogs that were placed along Philadelphia’s Main Line.
So that artists of all mediums could participate, the Big Apple Fest gave them a choice of using an opaque fiberglass apple or an acrylic apple shell, which could be designed from the inside out. Harrington chose the latter, and used real flowers preserved in beeswax to decorate her mold. The gridding on the inside was formed using foam and tulle.
The apples have found homes all over the city. Some businesses have bought sponsorship rights to apples and are displaying them in their offices and buildings. Others, such as Harrington’s, have been chosen for a prominent spot in one of two makeshift studios, fittingly called “orchards,” where they are garnering attention from tourists and residents alike.
Harrington has been to Ireland numerous times, her first trip courtesy of a writing scholarship, during which she traveled to Belfast and stayed with a family there. They introduced her to the city’s famed murals, which she recalled as “being quite stunning.”
Harrington is about to get deeper in touch with her Irish heritage. She leaves this week for Dublin, where she will be a graduate student at Trinity College, working toward a degree in International Peace Studies.
Harrington hopes to “combine the two disciplines of art and diplomacy.”
“I consider myself a public artist,” she said. “I would like to do some work with organizations such as Witness, who give people in third world counties film equipment to document human-rights abuses, and FilmAid, who do things like host film festivals in refugee camps.”
The Big Apple Fest, which bills itself as “Art with Heart,” is donating the proceeds from the planned auction, as well as any sponsorship money, to various New York City charities. City Harvest, a food rescue program, the Police Athletic League, which provides recreational programs to city children, and NYC & Company, the city’s non-profit tourism organization, all stand to benefit.
While the idea of public art is nothing new for New York, it is usually not executed on such a large scale with the entire city cooperating.
Swiss-born artist Pascal Knapp started the trend when he put cow molds on the streets of Zurich in 1998.
The trend quickly swept stateside. Chicago decided that its cow connection, courtesy of Mrs. O’Leary, warranted a similar exhibit. Funds raised from sponsoring the cows went to public works projects and charities, and soon other cities followed suit.
In 2000, Cincinnati placed pigs throughout the downtown area; Lexington, Kentucky boasted horses, and New York City borrowed Chicago’s idea and went with cows.
This year, when the planners of the Big Apple Fest in New York were looking for new inspiration, they did not have to go far.
“People felt a disconnect with the cows,” said Big Apple Fest’s co-founder, John Clay. “Apples are indigenous to New York, and besides, we are the big apple.”