A new art installation just rolled into the Garment District: six 9-foot-high wheels, which passers-by can crawl into and create their own personal light show.
LOOP, created by a group of Montreal-based artists, is a free, street-level installation on Broadway at 37th Street, open to the public through March 31. Inspired by a 19th-century optical toy, the wheel spins an illustrated fairy tale, like a flip book, when users sitting inside pump a lever.
“I didn’t expect to find this in the city,” says 10-year-old Neil Balija, who was visiting Manhattan for the day with his mother and younger sister from Livingston, NJ. “If you spin it fast enough the pictures move faster.”
Atiya Edwards-El, 12, and her best friend, Kaetlynn King-Velez, 13, both from Staten Island, went running over when they saw the luminous spinning wheels on their way to Times Square.
“The inside was spinning, but the outside was changing colors and we said, ‘That’s new,’” Edwards-El says. “It’s a different experience every time we come to the city.”
“It’s cute, like a workout and a storyline at the same time,” says Adrienne Patterson, 34, whose 1-year-old son smiled from his stroller when the wheels’ lights lit up.
Not everyone was as impressed with the new spectacle, though.
“If it’s art, there’s a lot better art in New York City than this,” says Stephanie Cohen, 28, a Long Island resident who works in the city as a swimsuit designer.
Like any good art installation, the wheels are open to interpretation. So Christopher Leon, 16, used the bench inside as a makeshift office for the day, working on a photo project on his tablet with a friend.
“Especially if you’re walking around a lot,” Leon says, “you can just sit here for a bit.”
