Bagels have forever been a symbol of urban living….Manhattan living in particular. Last week, Swedish artist Hanna Liden revealed her geographically appropriate sculpture of stacked bagels. Everything, the title of the hyperrealistic public art installation, is located in the same park where Liden remembers eating her very first New York bagel.
“It was 1998 which I know because that’s when I moved here,” she says. “I don’t remember what the shop was called, but I know that it was in the Meatpacking District. I got a plain bagel with lox cream cheese and then I walked to this park on Hudson and I ate it there.”
Actually a two-part installation, Hudson River Park marks the spot for the 7 foot wide and 15 feet tall 800-pound sculpture while the nearby Ruth Wittenberg Plaza has the counterpart bagel piece.
Primarily using industrial Styrofoam and polyurethane, Liden sculpted extremely large-scale versions of the doughy ring, both individually and in stack. One of the works stands high (with a well-done variety of flavors) and a single sculpted flower erected in the middle.
Liden started her career in photography, finding inspiration in every day things (i.e. the New York deli) which showed promise in her 2014 exhibition, In A Former Bodega. This quickly catalyzed her interest in creating large 3D versions of her images, in true New York style.
“I think it’s important to have humor involved if you’re going to put something on the street,” SHE SAYS. “And I like how, with a sculpture, it’s more of a physical experience [compared to] if you stand in front of a framed thing that’s flat on the wall.”
Liden has vocalized that she wants people to sit/stand/take pictures with the bagel sculptures, as a part of the Art Publication Fund, in which the sculptures are for the people to interact with and enjoy. So spread the love on social media and maybe you get featured here on the Facebook album dedicated to with other bagel lovers of New York City.
