Head in the Clouds

How does this installation inspire hope?

December 2020

Have you ever been to an airport? These civic spaces swirl with activity as travelers rush to catch their planes. Many people don’t pay attention to the space around them—until a flight is delayed and there’s nothing else to do. So the team involved with the redevelopment project for LaGuardia Airport in New York decided to include public art in the airport’s newly refurbished Terminal B.

Sarah Sze (zee) is one of four artists commissioned, or hired, to make a site-specific work for the airport. “I’m committed to . . . having art be accessible, be owned, shared, and seen by the many,” Sze says. She also sees potential in art’s ability to lift people’s spirits and offer hope.

Have you ever been to an airport? Travelers rush through these public places in a hurry to board their planes. Many don’t notice the space around them. When LaGuardia Airport in New York was under construction, people wanted to change that. They decided to include public art in the new design for Terminal B.

Sarah Sze (zee) is one of the artists hired for the project. She believes many people should be able to see art. She made a site-specific work just for the airport.

Arrivals and Departures

Shorter than the Day, above, is a sphere made of aluminum and steel rods. Sze suspends hundreds of photographs from the rods. Each image documents the New York City sky at a different time on a single day, capturing changes in light and color from dawn to darkness. Sze calls it a “record of light” and hopes these images will remind viewers of the space and time travel that occurs in flight. “When you get on a plane, how do you measure that feeling of shifting time and place?” she asks.

Sze’s work, above, is called Shorter than the Day. It’s a sphere made of aluminum and steel rods. The artist hangs hundreds of photos from the rods. Each photo shows the New York City sky at a different time on a single day. They capture how light and color change between dawn and dusk. Sze hopes the images remind viewers that when they travel on a plane, they move through space and time.

Volume of a Void

Shorter than the Day began as a sketch. Sze then worked with experts at a fabrication studio to build the structure, which she later assembled with a team on-site at the airport. “It had to feel like a cloud—uneven but not unbalanced, teetering on a thread,” Sze explains. Though the suspended rods appear chaotic at first, they also form an organized sphere surrounding a void.

Sze printed the photographs on sheets of aluminum that resemble torn paper, adding to the work’s weightless quality. Completed, the monumental sculpture is 48 feet high and 30 feet wide, and weighs 5 tons. But it looks delicate and ethereal.

First, Sze sketched her plan for Shorter than the Day. Then she figured out what materials she would need. She assembled it with a team at the airport. The hanging rods may look messy at first. But they form a clear sphere around a void, or empty space.

Sze printed the photos on sheets of aluminum that look like torn paper. They look much lighter than they are. The enormous sculpture weighs 5 tons! But Sze’s artistic choices make it look weightless.

“I am always trying to make sculptures that look radical, unlike anything you’ve seen before.”—

Sarah Sze

Hope From Above

In March 2020, Sze and her team were half finished installing Shorter than the Day when the governor of New York shut down the state to combat the Covid-19 virus. But since Terminal B couldn’t open until the sculpture was complete, Sze and her team were granted status as essential workers. The artist didn’t require her team to continue working on the installation, but they all did anyway, wearing masks and following other guidelines. Sze explains, “We were driven by the belief that finishing the piece would be a sign of light in a dark time, a show of resilience, a symbol of functioning government, and a reminder that art has the capacity to be uplifting.”

In March 2020, Sze and her team were half finished making the work. But then the governor of New York shut down the state to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Terminal B couldn’t open until the art was complete. Sze and her team wore masks and followed other guidelines so that they could keep working.

Sze said that “finishing the piece would be a sign of light in a dark time.” The artist wants her work to remind people that art can inspire strength and hope.