Courtesy of the artist
James Newton Wines, Liberty Landfill Plaza
Reflecting on this Year
Social/political/architectural commentary poster. Description – This drawing, created in 2017 and entitled ‘Liberty Landfill Plaza’, illustrates the graphic section of a hypothetical commercial development proposal for Lower Manhattan. The landfill required to construct this project envelopes the Statue of Liberty; but allows her torch to remain above ground as the centerpiece sculpture for a new public space. This graphic work was created as a commentary on the Trump era’s destructive (and ‘burial like’) effect on American democracy, culture, and environment. Sadly, the poster’s messages seem to continue to be relevant in 2021.
Biography
James Wines, artist/architect, is a winner of the 2013 National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement, and President of SITE in New York. He is the former Chairman of Environmental Design at Parsons School of Design and a professor emeritus at Penn State University. He has written 7 books on art and design, including ON SITE-ON ENERGY (Scribners & Sons, 1974), DE-ARCHITECTURE (Rizzoli International 1987), and GREEN ARCHITECTURE (Taschen Verlag 2000). He has designed more than 150 buildings and public spaces in 11 countries. He has won 25 art and design awards, including the ANCE Prize for International Architecture (Italy 2011) and the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation (USA 1995). He is a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kress Foundation, American Academy in Rome, Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Graham Foundation, and Ford Foundation. He continues to write, lecture and work on environmental art/architecture projects internationally.
