Photo: Julie Nymann

Do You Remember the Bananas?

Public art commission (2013)
Pier 42, New York
Paint on asphalt
In collaboration w. Lower Manhattan
Cultural Council and The Lower
East Side Waterfront Alliance

Up until 1987, Pier 42 was a cargo pier handling an average of 935 million bananas a year. The site specific public commission Do you remember the bananas? represents the bananas that have traversed Pier 42 over time, and documents some of the community’s memories of the period. The work is thus both an illustration of the natural world, and a visual history of one specific New York City culture. The silhouettes are based on botanical illustrations of banana plants from different periods.

Paths to Pier 42 was a pop-up park on Manhattan’s East River waterfront in the Lower East Side during summer 2013.