“This Land is Your Land”. Installation by Iván Navarro in Madison Square Park, NY.

Chilean artist, Iván Navarro has installed what appear to be three water towers – simple, timeless and ubiquitous structures – to relate the experience of immigration as well as the huge American landscape forming the dream of freedom for millions of people.



Visitors to Madison Square Park in New York can treat themselves to an installation composed of three water towers, created by Chilean artist Iván Navarro. The Brooklyn-based artist is already famous for his neon light sculptures.



The title of this installation is “This Land is Your Land”, borrowed from Woody Guthrie’s popular 1940 folk song, and is all about the strong pull that the US has on immigrants.





The difference between these three, purpose built water towers and the sort perched on city’s rooftops is that these ones do not hold water, their hollowed-out interiors feature the words “me”, “we”, and “bed” or the image of a ladder – all composed of neon light and repeated to make them appear infinite when seen from underneath. Here, Navarro has reworked these archaic structures and used basic words that are crucial to the survival of the human race. 





Indeed, Iván Navarro fills these water tanks – a common sight on New York's rooftops – with a metaphor for modern civilisation, the essence of human sustenance, the origin of sharing as an element that brings people together. 
“This Land is Your Land” is on view until 13 April, and is part of the free contemporary art programmed promoted by the Madison Square Park Conservancy, which has commissioned temporary installations by several artists since 2004.

Installation open until 13 April 2014.
More information: http://madisonsquarepark.org
Artist: Iván Navarro
Location: Madison Square Park, NY, USA
Photo by James Ewing Photograhy, New York. Courtesy of Madison Square Park Conservancy.