flavorpill

Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch is a man in search of lost time. He feeds viewers a Proustian Madeleine for their senses, attempting to evoke a far-off place and time. There's a touch of piquant humor in his works: they feel a little like a travelogue crossed with a science experiment — a mechanical attempt to mimic the natural phenomenon that make up a memory. But their cleverness is quieted by their lambent beauty, and by their ability to work upon your senses. All these elements are on display in Finch's most recent project, The River that Flows Both Ways, now on view on the High Line. Consisting of 700 panes of glass, this new work is actually the narrative of 700 minutes on the Hudson River, each pane matching the color of the water during a single minute of a day-long boat ride. It's ambitious in concept but pleasingly modest in appearance. The panes filter the outside light; and combined with the high, dark roof of the former biscuit factory overhead, they create the murk of actually being underwater, as if you have been submerged from the sun-struck High Line into its dank river parallel.