“In every language there is Land/En cada lengua hay una Tierra,” by Nicholas Galanin

As we prepare to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day this coming Monday, we thought it apt to share this magnificent thirty-foot tall steel sculpture presented by the Public Art Fund currently at home at Brooklyn Bridge Park, artfully spelling out the word "LAND." Created by indigenous artist Nicholas Galanin, “In every language there is Land/En cada lengua hay una Tierra” is reminiscent of Robern Indiana’s 1966 sculpture, “LOVE.” Galanin's perspective, emphasizing that "barriers to Land directly reflect barriers to love, love for Land, for community, and for future generations," underscores the thematic resonance between the two artists' works.

Galanin, a respected member of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, incorporates his heritage into his art, fostering a dialogue between Native and non-Native communities. His sculpture, crafted from the same material as the U.S.-Mexico border wall, challenges the concept of border walls and advocates for Indigenous approaches to land ownership and national borders, promoting freedom of movement .

The title, “In every language there is Land/En cada lengua hay una Tierra,” is in both English and Spanish to represent both languages imposed by colonial powers on either side of the U.S.-Mexican border. This artwork serves as a poignant reminder of the resilience and enduring presence of Indigenous peoples, persisting and transcending borders despite the unjust loss of rights, languages, and access to their ancestral lands.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors in Washington Square Park.

Famed artist and activist Ai Weiwei has a new multi-site exhibit in New York City. Good Fences Make Good Neighbors is a multi-media exhibition for public spaces, monuments, buildings, and transportation sites and is a "passionate response to the global migration crisis and a reflection on the profound social and political impulse to divide people from each other."

The exhibit is spread out over the five boroughs. In Washington Square Park (pictured above), where Ai Weiwei often visited in the 1980s when he lived nearby, his thirty-seven-foot-tall steel cage titled "Arch" seems at first only an impenetrable barrier, but the opening, cut in the silhouette of two united figures, allows passage. In Central Park, "Gilded Cage" evokes the "luxury of Fifth Avenue and the privations of confinement." At Flushing Meadows in Queens, his 1,000-foot-long "Circle Fence" uses metal frames with netting to surround the Unisphere, making a "global border that can be seen as both playful and sobering." Ai Wewei has also created 200 banners to appear on lampposts across all five boroughs that feature images from his new documentary Human Flow, which was made after he traveled to twenty-three countries and more than forty refugee camps in 2016.

The exhibit title references a folksy proverb cited in poet Robert Frost’s Mending Wall, and Ai Weiwei chose this title with "an ironic smile and a keen sense of how populist notions often stir up fear and prejudice." Visitors to the exhibition will find that "good fences" do not just keep people out but, more importantly, let people in. Ai Weiwei says: “Think about 65 million refugees who stay in the cold and the rain and the horror with no hope...Fortunately, and also fortunately, we’re spoiled by contemporary life; we forget other people still in suffering and in pain and who need help. We have to protect the people just like we have to protect ourselves. Otherwise, anyone can be refugees.”