Read curator Cecilia Alemani’s High Line highlights

The High Line curator just toured the linear park's current art installation Wanderlust - here's what she liked

The High Line, New York’s world-famous linear park, is currently hosting Wanderlust, a public sculpture program organised around the theme of walking, journeys and pilgrimages. But if that sounds like a lot of physical as well as mental leg work don’t worry, The High Line's curator Cecilia Alemani just gave The Art Newspaper a tour of the project. So here we've curated a few of her picks from that walk.

Untitled (public sculpture for a redundant space) by Mike Nelson. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Image courtesy of the High Line

This is not a homeless person’s sleeping bag! It is an important work by Mike Nelson The British artist enjoys a bit of a ramble, and created this work by filling one of his sleeping bags with rubble from construction sites around The High Line  “It’s interesting to me because I can see remains of previous artworks in them, that’s part of the Adrián Villar Rojas installation. It’s funny because we get calls all the time saying: someone is living on The High Line!”

Sleepwalker by Tony Matelli. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Image courtesy of the High Line

You can actually see the that the Sleepwalker was wearing socks Students of Wellesley College objected to the public installation of Tony Matelli’s 2014 bronze sculpture, Sleepwalker, so ardently that the work was removed from their campus. However, the artsy somnambulist has been a huge hit since it arrived on The High Line. Alemani herself admires the artist’s attention to very minor elements. “To me it’s an amazing artwork. It’s made of bronze. Look at the details, I love the sock line on his feet. It’s actually really, really well made.”

Wanderlust by Giorgio Andreotta Calò. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Image courtesy of the High Line

Look for art hidden in between the High Line’s paving slabs This work, also entitled Wanderlust by the Italian artist, Giorgio Andreotta Calò is a discreet little bit of sculpture, fitted into The High Line s walkway. “This piece is inspired by Mildred Lisette Norman, the Peace Pilgrim, and she walked across the United States more than 20 times,” explains Alemani. “You know Forrest Gump? The same thing happened to her, she started being followed by people. You’ll see 16 of these metal rods, each has the name of this person and how much they walked, how many miles”

Tide and Current Taxi by Marie Lorenz. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Image courtesy of the High Line

The boats are seaworthy, and you can even take a ride in them Alemani included Marie Lorenz’s Tide and Current Taxi as part of Frieze Projects back in 2014. Lorenz used her handmade boats and canoes as a kind of alternative water-taxi service for the fair, giving visitors a very different view of the city. Now they’re temporarily installed at The High Line.

“We lower them into the water," she says. “We take them into the Hudson River and we take people for rides down the Hudson River up near Pier 40 and it’s amazing because you can go out  among the old piers and you have a completely different perspective on New York from the water.”

To read the full piece go here; for more on site-specific works get Art & Place, and for more on The High Line from the people who created it get this book.