This Land Is Your Land

Iván Navarro’s site-specific installation in Madison Square Park references the experience of immigration through repeating neon reflections on mirrored walls inside the structures.

Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Mad. Sq. Art hosts the sculptural installation This Land Is Your Land by Brooklyn-based Chilean artist Iván Navarro.

The site-specific installation presents three water towers inside of which neon reflections repeat infinitely. The sculptures merge a staple of the New York skyline with the street-level landscape of the Park.

Installation view of Iván Navarro’s This Land Is Your Land in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square Park Conservancy.

The artist takes the installation’s title from 1940 Woody Guthrie folk song, which is both an American anthem and a vocal pull to the freedoms offered in this country for an immigrant population.

The towers are elevated to a height above visitors’ heads, allowing them to walk underneath and look up into each sculpture to view the content within.

Installation view of Iván Navarro’s This Land Is Your Land in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square

The interior of one tower will feature the words “me” and “we”, another will feature the word “bed”, and a third will display the image of a ladder — all of which will be composed of neon light. An internal arrangement of mirrors will enable each word or image to repeat perpetually through a seemingly endless vertical space.

Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square
Installation view of Iván Navarro’s <i>This Land Is Your Land</i> in Madison Square Park (2014). Photo by James Ewing Photography, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square


until April 13, 2014
Iván Navarro
This Land Is Your Land

Mad. Sq. Art
Madison Square Park, New York