The River is a Circle by Marina Zurkow

The River is a Circle2025

Custom software (color, silent), computer, screenDimensions variable, landscape orientation Edition of 5, 2 AP

The new Hyundai commission The River is a Circle by Marina Zurkow (with Jim Schmitz) consists of an animation based on custom software and an accompanying installation. The work builds on Zurkow’s previous pieces Hudson Follies (2022) and Does the River Flow Both Ways? (2022), which depict a view of the Hudson River in a horizontal split between the world above and under water. As in the previous works, the landscape will depict a complex ecosystem of social and biological assemblages that form and dissolve, such as vessels traveling along the river, fish flocks, and oyster reefs. The dynamic composition of the elements appearing in the animation is driven by algorithmic probability. The River is a Circle will be a more site-specific version of the previous works, focusing on the meatpacking district and bringing together a mix of river ecology, researched with the help of Hudson River Park Trust, and local history. It will reference the last receded glacier 10,000 years ago, the Lenape trading post close to the Whitney, the rise of the steam rail, slaughterhouses, the illicit night life of the 70s, gentrification, and the installations by Gordon Matta-Clark and David Hammons close to the Whitney Museum. The artist plans to speculate on a circular economy, and a potentially positive circular flow back to more modest, ecosystemic strategies. Past, present, and future will become legible through a visual system (e.g. fog to indicate the past andluminescent rays for the future). The software system responds to the real-time weather and tide data of Hudson River estuary and will always reflect the actual weather and season in New York City.

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