Pinecrest Participatory Public Art by Xavier Cortada
/Pinecrest Artist in Residence, Xavier Cortada has many unique art projects around the world. One took him to Antarctica where he highlighted climate change by doing an art installation right at the pole. Cortada’s latest art project, scheduled to coincide with Art Basil, exposes rising sea levels in a special way.
“The ice I used to make my paintings [from the Antarctica art project] is the very ice that threatens to drown my city in the future,” said Cortada. So, you might say Cortada is just extending his artistic muscle to try to enlighten and activate his community. With this participatory art he’s enlisting 6,000 of his Pinecrest neighbors to participate in self-education.
To that end, he painted several Pinecrest intersections with an artistic number “floating” in front of a blue watery background to indicate the number of feet above sea level at that spot.
Further, the project has many residents posting signs in their yards with what their lot is above sea level. Quite a cool way to educate owners and visitors to the possible future of Pinecrest as sea levels rise.
You can learn more at: https://cortada.com (the artists’ own page)