Art at Amtrak - Fall 2024 Artworks

ALLISON MARIA RODRIGUEZ

A Human Glimpse of Cosmic Time, 2024
Video Installation

Moynihan Train Hall, Main Hall Digital Screens
In Partnership with Empire State Development

Artist Allison Maria Rodriguez investigates our perception of time by transporting neolithic monuments from the landscape of Northern Ireland into the modern transit epicenter of Moynihan Train Hall. All footage was filmed by Rodriguez during a residency in Northern Ireland sponsored and supported by Digital Arts Studios, Belfast. These sacred sites were often constructed to record the movement and cyclical nature of the heavens, while also conjuring access to a mystical, spiritual sense of time outside human understanding. Placed within a contemporary urban space specifically built and utilized by standardized time (railway time, a fairly new invention of modernity necessitated by mass transit), these quiet yet visually striking sites ask us to look outside the present moment — even for just an instant — and behold an interconnected existence larger than ourselves. Through an evocation of human history, astronomy and divinity, the work encourages viewers to shift their understanding of their position in the world, consider climate change and contemplate our role as future ancestors.

Allison Maria Rodriguez is a first-generation Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist working predominantly in video installation. Through a blending of video, digital animation, photography, drawing, performance, sculpture, collage and installation, Rodriguez creates immersive experiential spaces that focus extensively on climate change, species extinction and the interconnectivity of existence. Her award-winning work has been exhibited internationally and operates at the intersection of environmental and social justice. Rodriguez is based in Boston, MA and is currently the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Biology of Trauma Initiative at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

An award-winning public arts curator and producer, Debra Simon has more than 30 years of experience in visual and performing arts programming for civic organizations, the real estate industry, and other companies. While working at the Downtown Alliance, she created the Music at Castle Clinton concert series, Dine Around Downtown, and co-founded the River-to-River Festival in 2002. As the Director of Times Square Arts, Simon oversaw Midnight Moment, the world’s largest digital art exhibition on electronic billboards, and the annual Valentine Heart design competition, among other projects for the over 300,000 daily visitors to Times Square. As Artistic Director at Brookfield Properties, she led a national arts program that planned and executed multi-disciplinary programming, presenting over 500 free events annually in New York, Denver, Los Angeles, and Houston. Collaborations with artists, architects, landscape designers, local arts organizations, and presenting partners have contributed to her expertise in creating and reimagining public spaces. Current clients include Amtrak, Taconic Partners, Hudson Yard Hell’s Kitchen Alliance, Fifth Avenue Association, and Third Street Music School Settlement. For more information, visit Debra Simon Art Consulting. Simon is collaborating with producer Common Ground Arts to realize Art at Amtrak. Visit dsimonartconsulting.com for more information.

See the current installation of Art at Amtrak.