Willie Cole Takes the Chandelier to Park Avenue
At a Glance
- What
Four chandelier sculptures by Willie Cole
- When
- 2023 installation
- Where
Park Avenue median, between East 69th and East 70th Streets
- Experience
Public sculpture assembled from discarded plastic water bottles.
- Coverage
- Explore coverage
- Details
- What to Know
TheNakedNYC coverage
TheNakedNYC documented Willie Cole's four chandelier sculptures along the Park Avenue median in 2023.
What to Know
Four Works, One Everyday Material
3000 Buddha, Liberty Lantern, Soul Catcher, and Dirt Devil formed the installation. The original report counted 9,000 bottles across the four works and described their display as continuing through the end of 2023.
Images Inside the Bottles
3000 Buddha used 3,000 bottles containing Buddha images printed on plastic with weather-resistant ink. Liberty Lantern repeated images of the Statue of Liberty, embedding a familiar New York symbol inside an everyday container.
Repetition as a Building Method
Cole compared the bottle to a cell: a small unit that changes when repeated within a larger structure. Rings and tiers of transparent bottles created the chandeliers' volume while leaving their source material recognizable.
Newark Behind the Installation
The sculptures grew from Cole's 2022-23 residency at Express Newark, Rutgers-Newark's center for socially engaged art and design. Students and residents helped drill bottles for wire connections. The work connects plastic waste with access to safe drinking water, including Newark's lead-water crisis.
Value and Familiar Objects
The apparent glasslike delicacy of the chandeliers contrasts with their discarded material. Cole has also worked with irons, shoes, bicycles, and musical instruments, using familiar objects to examine consumer culture, identity, and memory.
