Catalogue from the installation on view June 1, 2015 through winter 2015-16 at Madison Square Park in New York City. "Mad. Sq. Art, the free, contemporary art program of Madison Square Park Conservancy, proudly presents Fata Morgana by New York-based artist Teresita Fernández, the Conservancy’s largest and most ambitious outdoor sculpture to date. The outdoor sculpture, which will consist of 500 running feet of golden, mirror-polished discs that create canopies above the pathways around the Park’s central Oval Lawn, will be on view in Madison Square Park beginning June 1, 2015. In nature, a Fata Morgana is a horizontal mirage that forms across the horizon line. Alluding to this phenomenon, Fernández’s project introduces a shimmering horizontal element to the Park that will engage visitors in a dynamic experience.

The installation is a mirror-polished, golden metal sculpture that will hover above the Park’s winding walkways to define a luminous experiential passage for Park visitors. The metal forms, perforated with intricate patterns reminiscent of foliage, will create abstract flickering effects as sunlight filters through the canopy, casting a golden glow across the expanse of the work, paths, and passersby. The project is Mad. Sq. Art’s first to fully utilize the upper register of a visitor’s space. Teresita Fernández (American, b. 1968), a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, is best known for her prominent public sculptures and unconventional use of materials. Her work is characterized by an interest in perception and the psychology of looking. Her experiential, large-scale works are often inspired by landscape and natural phenomena as well as diverse historical and cultural references.