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FERRY ALERT: New York Harbor will be experiencing planned closures on March 29, 2024. Because of this, Governors Island ferry service may experience delays between 11am-12pm on Friday, March 29. Times are subject to change, we apologize for any inconvenience.

FERRY ALERT: New York Harbor will be experiencing planned closures on March 29, 2024. Because of this, Governors Island ferry service may experience delays between 11am-12pm on Friday, March 29. Times are subject to change, we apologize for any inconvenience.

Gov­er­nors Island Opens 2019 Pub­lic Art Com­mis­sion with Shantell Martin

June 3, 2019 — The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced the open­ing of its next project as part of its annu­al pub­lic art com­mis­sion pro­gram. Open June 1, the Trust presents Church, and immer­sive, con­tem­pla­tive work by Shantell Mar­tin, who enlivens the façade of Our Lady Star of the Sea, a for­mer mil­i­tary chapel, decon­se­crat­ed for over 20 years and locat­ed in the Island’s His­toric Dis­trict. The sea­son-long exhi­bi­tion will be on view dai­ly through Octo­ber 31. Expand­ed, site-spe­cif­ic pro­gram­ming relat­ed to Martin’s work will open in Fall, 2019

We are thrilled to be work­ing with Shantell Mar­tin for our 2019 com­mis­sion, whose per­for­ma­tive draw­ings will be in direct con­ver­sa­tion with the move­ment of the Island and its com­mu­ni­ty of vis­i­tors,” said Mered­ith John­son, Vice Pres­i­dent of Art and Cul­ture at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. This immer­sive work will act as a dynam­ic and uni­fy­ing mark­er in the Island’s land­scape, fos­ter­ing dis­cus­sion, med­i­ta­tive explo­ration and cross-dis­ci­pli­nary collaboration.” 

Bring­ing new life to Our Lady Star of the Sea, Mar­tin uses her sig­na­ture black and white draw­ings to cre­ate a liv­ing, vis­i­ble bea­con in the Island’s His­toric Dis­trict. Inspired by her per­son­al expe­ri­ences and research on the vibrant his­to­ry of the Island, Church invites vis­i­tors to cir­cum­nav­i­gate the for­mer chapel’s archi­tec­ture through image and nar­ra­tive, engag­ing with the dynamism of the land­scapes that sur­round it. In this way, the work serves to high­light and help reimag­ine a build­ing that has long been emp­ty and closed to the pub­lic. Reflect­ing upon the building’s his­to­ry, Martin’s large-scale draw­ing pays trib­ute to the dis­used for­mer mil­i­tary struc­ture and hon­ors its lega­cy as a place of great sig­nif­i­cance on the Island dur­ing its half-cen­tu­ry of active use. 

Built in 1942, Our Lady Star of the Sea orig­i­nal­ly opened as a Catholic chapel dur­ing the Sec­ond World War and the expan­sion of the for­mer U.S. Army base. Serv­ing as a cen­tral hub of reli­gious activ­i­ty on the Island along with near­by St. Cor­nelius Chapel, Our Lady Star of the Sea remained in use until 1996 when the U.S. Coast Guard ceased oper­a­tions on Gov­er­nors Island. Decon­se­crat­ed for over 20 years, the for­mer chapel is one of the few non-land­marked build­ings locat­ed with­in the Gov­er­nors Island His­toric Dis­trict. Martin’s project brings new life and vis­i­bil­i­ty to the for­mer chapel for the first time in years. 

Expand­ing and evolv­ing through­out Gov­er­nors Island’s pub­lic sea­son, in Fall, 2019 the Trust will host week­end pro­gram­ming that is free and open to the pub­lic, includ­ing poet­ry read­ings and events. Addi­tion­al pro­gram­ming will launch in Sep­tem­ber, includ­ing a part­ner­ship with the Poet­ry Soci­ety of Amer­i­ca, who will curate three free read­ings inspired by Martin’s work. 

Below the sur­face of Shantell Martin’s sig­na­ture black and white draw­ings is an artist’s inquiry into the role of artist and view­er, where a work of art is more than an object of admi­ra­tion dis­con­nect­ed from its incep­tion. With a med­i­ta­tive process defined by an unin­hib­it­ed flow, her com­po­si­tions embody her inter­nal state and the imper­ma­nence of the world around her. Explor­ing themes such as inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty, iden­ti­ty and play, Mar­tin is a cul­tur­al facil­i­ta­tor, forg­ing new con­nec­tions between fine art, edu­ca­tion, design, phi­los­o­phy and tech­nol­o­gy. Lon­don born and New York-based, Martin’s body of work includes solo shows at the New York City Bal­let, the 92nd Street Y Gallery, the Albright Knox Gallery and the Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Arts (MoCA­DA). She cur­rent­ly teach­es as an adjunct pro­fes­sor at NYU’s ITP (Inter­ac­tive Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Pro­gram) – where she works with her stu­dents to push the bound­aries of sto­ry­telling, visu­al art and tech­nol­o­gy – and is a for­mer MIT Media Lab Scholar. 

This year’s com­mis­sion is co-curat­ed by Mered­ith John­son, the Trust’s VP of Arts and Cul­ture and Shane Bren­nan, the Trust’s Direc­tor of Pub­lic Pro­grams. Since open­ing to the pub­lic in 2005, The Trust has worked with dozens of artists and arts and cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions from across New York City to bring a robust cal­en­dar of com­mis­sions, exhi­bi­tions and events to the Island’s diverse audi­ence. The Trust’s com­mis­sion­ing pro­gram gives artists the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with audi­ences through site-spe­cif­ic projects respond­ing to the Island’s unique conditions. 

Pre­vi­ous com­mis­sions on Gov­er­nors Island include Rachel Whiteread’s Cab­in, a per­ma­nent work sit­ed on Dis­cov­ery Hill with­in the Island’s park space, and Day is Done, a large-scale instru­men­tal sound instal­la­tion by Susan Philip­sz. In 2011 – 2012 Storm King Art Cen­ter spon­sored an exhi­bi­tion of 12 mon­u­men­tal works by Mark di Suvero through­out the Island. Gov­er­nors Island’s com­mis­sion­ing pro­gram was relaunched as an annu­al series in 2017 with Rock, Mos­qui­to and Hum­ming­bird, a wind­ing sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion by David Brooks telling the sto­ry of the Island’s pre-his­to­ry’ through con­tin­u­ous rock core sam­ples assem­bled in his­toric Fort Jay. In 2018, Jacob Hashimoto’s 15,000 del­i­cate bam­boo and paper kites filled Trin­i­ty Church and Nev­er Comes Tomor­row, a col­or­ful, whim­si­cal out­door instal­la­tion, hung over­head in the land­mark Liggett Hall Arch­way. The lat­ter work is being extend­ed through Octo­ber 31 of this year. 

Gen­er­ous sup­port for Shantell Mar­tin on Gov­er­nors Island is pro­vid­ed by Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund and The O’Grady Foun­da­tion. Addi­tion­al sup­port is pro­vid­ed by Pullman. 

Fol­low Shantell Mar­tin on Insta­gram and Twit­ter at @shantell_martin.