Casey Kaplan
Hannah Levy: Retainer | High Line Commission at 23rd Street
ON VIEW NOW
THROUGH MARCH 2022
Hannah Levy’s largely anthropomorphic sculptures evoke the physicality of interacting with the built environment: lounging on chairs, leaning in doorways, or grasping a railing. For the High Line, Levy makes an oversized orthodontic retainer from carved marble and stainless steel. The sculpture is the newest in her series of stone retainers. Levy hand-sculpted earlier iterations in alabaster; the version on the High Line was made at a marble quarry in Italy. The piece points to the strangeness of orthodontics and straight teeth as a marker of class, in part because of orthodontics’ exorbitant price. The organic form of the cast mouth contrasts with its smooth metal bars, which conjure the feeling of the rigid form inside one’s mouth and invite external structures inside one’s own body. Levy’s giant retainer is almost as tall as the park benches nearby, and the retainer wire is the size of the High Line’s exterior railings, setting the piece in conversation with the architecture and design of the park and its surroundings.
THE HIGH LINE VISITOR INFORMATION
The High Line is currently open with a free timed-entry reservation system on weekends, reduced operating hours and amenities, and limited capacity in order to allow for social distancing. Free timed-entry passes are now available for weekend visits through April 25.
HOURS: Monday – Friday, 7AM – 7PM (free entry without reservations), Saturday & Sunday, 10AM – 6PM (free entry, reservations requested)
ENTERING THE PARK: Enter at Gansevoort Street, 23rd Street, or 30th Street, with exits throughout. Elevators are available at Gansevoort Street, 23rd Street, and 30th Street. The elevator at 14th Street is for exit only. Please wear a mask.
Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support for High Line Art is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund. High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Corey Johnson.
Hannah Levy, Retainer is made possible, in part, by an in-kind donation from Fondazione Henraux.