Join the Garment District Alliance for a talk with 'New York Roots' artist Steve Tobin and MTA Arts & Design Deputy Director Cheryl Hageman on Sunday afternoon at 1pm and stop by to see the installation throughout the festival.

'New York Roots' is comprised of seven sculptures across two plazas—some standing as high as two stories, others no taller than the average person. The metaphor of roots underlies the forms, but in moving from casting to formed steel, the sculptures become less literal and more allegorical. Roots evoke families, communities, relationships, all unseen power, coming together for a shared purpose. The legs are anthropomorphic, evoking dancing figures, tangled and entwined and embracing.

When looking up from underneath, the ever-changing light and sky are framed by the swirling roots, creating fresh landscapes of the sky. The viewer feels sheltered and transformed by the space created inside the root structure, becoming part of the unseen but implied tree. Juxtaposed with the buildings in cities, they are fantastical organic root gods, protecting and animating the space they occupy as well as the spaces in between and around the sculptures.

Sunday Talk: 1-2pm Artist Steve Tobin will be on site to give a talk about his new public artwork, New York Roots, on view at the Garment District Plazas. The talk will be led by Cheryl Hageman, Deputy Director of MTA Arts & Design.

The plaza and art installation are outdoors; visitors should dress for the weather.