Last week I finally went to check out Davina Semo’s public art piece Reverberation which debuted back in August at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Presented by the Public Art Fund, the installation features five four-foot-tall cast bronze orange bells suspended 14 feet high on Pier 1 overlooking Lower Manhattan.
In homage to the waterfront park’s maritime past, visitors are encouraged to ring the bells to “enliven the New York City waterfront and contribute to the urban soundscape,” the Park’s website states. Designed in an elongated buoy-like shape, each bell was given a unique name—Dreamer, Listener, Mother, Reflector, and Singer.
Semo drilled holes through the surface of the bells, giving them individual perforated patterns that emit “subtle nuances in their tones when rung” and “create constellations of light in their darkened interiors and staccato patterns on their exterior shells,” according to publicartfund.org. Supported by a hulking frame made of industrial galvanized steel, each bell is painted in a pearlescent bright orange to mimic the “international color of urgent alarm” and draw attention to these “precarious times” marked by social unrest and a deadly pandemic.
“During this turbulent year, auditory interventions have characterized our collective experience, whether through the evening cheers for essential workers or the chanting voices of protesters demanding justice,” notes Public Art Fund curator Daniel S. Palmer. Reverberation welcomes visitors to contribute to and connect with the urban symphony by ringing the bells on “an optimistic note.”
Born in Washington, D.C., Semo received a BA in Visual Arts from Brown University and her MFA from UC San Diego. The artist is currently based in San Francisco. See more of her industrial sculptures—composed with bronze, mirrors, ball bearings, chains, concrete, and more—at artsy.net or davinasemo.net.
Davina Semo: Reverberation
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1
On view from August 20, 2020 through April 18, 2021
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