Asylum, City, Encampment

One of the things that makes it "worth it" to live on the East Coast is easy (or, relatively so) access to NYC and all it has to offer. The ability to check something out in the NYT that looks interesting, and decide, on a whim, to go visit it (while it may have profound procrastination/homework implications), is really quite cool. That's what happened this weekend.

For three days this weekend; Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, a Canadian artist, Thom Sokoloski, set up 110 canvas tents on the south end of Roosevelt Island in the middle of the East River and opened it to the public. At the turn of the century, Roosevelt Island was completely isolated from the rest of the city, and it's space was reserved for Small Pox hospitals and insane asylums. The truly "mad" as well as the politically disident (such as Mae West), and the merely "hysterical" were sent to the island for a lifetime of institutionalization and brutality. His installation was intended as a tribute to the individuals who were once inhabitants on this island, which is now being gentrified into relatively "affordable" housing (by NYC standards, that is.) Sokoloski collaborated with volunteers from across the city to not only install the tents, but to fill each tent with a story of a particular resident: we learned about mothers placed there for life as a result of post partum depression, and of the sick who were left to die due to sepsis. All this placed in the foreground of what is arguably the most metropolitan (and somehow the most provincial) city on earth: the glittering skyline of the West side rose above the humble tents of the exhibition. Accompanied by mid-century traveling musicians, the contrast was stark: Sokoloski had managed to throw this small part of Manhattan back into a time it would rather forget, while the hustle and bustle of the real city was just a half-river away.

It was really stunning, and reminded me, no matter how miserable it is here sometimes, there ARE good things about living on the east coast, and it's up to me to take advantage of them.

For more information on the Encampment, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/arts/design/06tent.html?_r=1&oref=slogin