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For Immediate Release
November 1, 2000

Matthew Geller's temporary outdoor installation, Foggy Day will be installed in a heavily traveled area in lower Manhattan. The site, Marketfield Street (off Broad Street, one block below Beaver Street), is a narrow, usually ignored, almost invisible, piece of real estate near Wall Street that is temporarily designated for pedestrians.

People make a detour and stop for some respite, to talk or to play in this site that is engulfed in fog. The ground is forgiving. It's coated with a half-inch thick translucent aquamarine rubber coating, creating a soft, watery surface. The rubber seems to have flowed out of a broken pipe and solidified. Low white noise from the fog producing mist covers sounds from the 'outside.' Large rubber plants of various colors emerge from the aquamarine rubber surface like logs and plants in a pond.

The fog, acting like an outdoor air conditioner, is moist and cool without being wet. It's dynamic as the denseness is determined by the air temperature and the humidity. A gust of wind can clear the air and the atmosphere changes; then slowly, a pipe producing a very fine mist, again fills the space with fog. It's filmic, other-worldly, fun, a temporary escape.

Foggy Day is based on a work, Failing to seek shelter, they., Geller installed in 1999 in the alley-entranceway to the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam.

The site functions as an art installation and a park, enchanted by fog only at particular times of day-lunch time, late in the afternoon after work, and at dark. On special occasions the site will host performances organized by Franklin Furnace.

There is an implied, though somewhat elusive, narrativity to Geller's work. In the visual arts there is a long tradition of narrative in painting and sculpture. Film beginning early in this century, video from the late 60's on, and the resurgence of animation in the 90's have all served to redefine narrative possibilities. Gellerís installations (four physical dimensions as opposed to, for example, film where two of the four dimensions are virtual) combine aspects of each of the media to create story possibilities that only exist with the integration of the viewer.

The installation will open in mid-June 2001.