CEC ArtsLink presents a One Big City project: BRONX REFLECTS

CEC ArtsLink, in collaboration with THE POINT CDC, is proud to present BRONX REFLECTS by Brooklyn artist Robert Hickman and Czech artist Martin Papcun, as part of the One Big City program.  A duo of site-specific installations, BRONX REFLECTS reconnects several neighborhoods in the South Bronx which were disrupted in the 1970s by the Bruckner Expressway. Through subtle interventions and explorations of light, the artists metaphorically link two separated neighborhoods and engage viewers to reflect on lost histories.

Robert Hickman, known variously for inspired public art commissions and feats of unicycling, activates the pedestrian bridge over Bruckner Boulevard at Bryant Avenue with his installation Silvered/Slivered.  “The Bruckner/Sheridan thoroughfare has heavy traffic above and below the pedestrian bridge. The overpass is littered with broken glass, needles, condoms,” says Hickman.  Working with local teenagers, Hickman has applied silver paint to the vertical risers on the stairway to the bridge. The painted planes are separate, but from a certain point of view they become a light-reflecting luminous approach to the crossing. “Silvered/Slivered illuminates and makes fantastic what is now an unpleasant place,” continues Hickman.

Martin Papcun explores private relationships with public spaces and the spaces we inhabit, in works both monumental and miniature.  Working with a South Bronx family originally from Puerto Rico, Papcun created “… We carry it on,”complex projections out of the family’s windows that overlay vistas from their native country onto their current street view.  “Feelings and memories from our past homes are stuck in our memory. For a brief moment, an eyewink, we go back, and suddenly past overlaps with present,” says Papcun. The multi-layered projection illuminates the many realities we always carry with us.  
 
Silvered/Sliveredby Robert Hickman
Opens on Saturday, September 28, 5 - 6:30 pm with feats by the Unicycle Bridge Tour
On view until the silver paint fades
Pedestrian crossing over Bruckner Boulevard at Bryant Avenue, “East” Hunts Point side
 
“…We carry it on”by Martin Papcun
Opens on Saturday, September 28, 7 – 10 pm
271 Alexander Avenue between East 138th and East 139th Streets
On view Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays 7 – 9 pm through September 28
 
BRONX REFLECTScontinues One Big City, a series of collaborative residencies and events produced by CEC ArtsLink in partnership with leading cultural institutions to engage New York’s diaspora communities through international arts initiatives. BRONX REFLECTS was developed during a three-week residency at THE POINT CDC andculminates in public events in the Bronx.

Website: One Big City
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Robert Hickman bio
Robert Hickman’s installations and sculptures were exhibited in solo and group shows at New York venues PS1, SculptureCenter, Exit Art, White Columns, and Socrates Sculpture Park, among many others. His permanent public commissions are at 72nd Street and Broadway subway station in New York (Laced Canopy); Capital Community College, Hartford, CT; and at Roosevelt Island Station, New York. Hickman’s work was recognized by many national and international awards, among them New York City MASterwork Award for Best New Public Artfrom The Municipal Society of New York. An Ohio native, Hickman currently is an Adjunct Professor at Hunter College, New York. He lives and works in Brooklyn.

Martin Papcun bio
Martin Papcun's work focuses on our relationships with private/public spaces and the gaps in between. The artist examines the differences between states, subcultures, individuals and their languages. He created the large-scale site-specific installations House_turned_inside_out (2009) and W45th (2008) in Cleveland, OH; Illusion in London, UK (2006); and Pilgrimage in Morocco (2002). His works were exhibited at Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig, Germany (2013); Cheongju, South Korea (2013); ADBK Gallery Munich, Germany (2013); Gallery Baum, Heyri, Paju, South Korea (2013); and Noel Guyomarc'h Gallery Montreal, Canada (2013), among others. Born in Czechoslovakia, Papcun currently works and lives in Munich, Germany.

About CEC ArtsLink
CEC ArtsLink promotes international communication and understanding through collaborative, innovative arts projects for mutual benefit. We support and produce programs that encourage the exchange of visual and performing artists and cultural managers in the United States and 37 countries overseas.

About THE POINT CDC
THE POINT Community Development Corporation is a non-profit dedicated to youth development and the cultural and economic revitalization of the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx.  We work with our neighbors to celebrate the life and art of our community, an area traditionally defined solely in terms of its poverty, crime rate, poor schools and substandard housing.  We believe the area’s residents, their talents and aspirations, are THE POINT’s greatest assets. 

One Big City is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Special thanks to Libertad and Monxo Lopez for opening their home to “…We carry it on”.