Commissioned in 2025 for The Hyundai Terrace at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The River is a Circle is a generative animation that portrays the Hudson River as a layered scene, dividing the view between life above and below the water’s surface. The animated imagery continuously shifts based on algorithmic probabilities, incorporating real-time weather, seasonal data, time of day, sunrise and sunset, tidal information, and live marine traffic from the immediate vicinity.
Developed with input on Hudson River ecology from the Hudson River Park Trust, as well as historical and anecdotal sources, The River is a Circle weaves together elements of the river’s underwater life with historical and cultural references to the Meatpacking District. These include its origins as a Lenape trading site, the early Dutch West Indies Company’s colonial project, the rise of 19th century steamboat technology and the Gansevoort Market, industrial era meat production and the subsequent dilapidation of the neighborhood in the 1970’s that opened the way for the piers, the significant artistic and queer nightlife, and the area’s connection to the art practices of David Wojnarowicz, Gordon Matta-Clark and David Hammons.
Spilling from the outdoor screen onto the Whitney’s 5th floor terrace, the installation features marine debris and oyster reef balls—structures designed to foster oyster habitats. The work reflects on cyclical ecological systems and the circularity of time.
Two of the myriad possible futures appear amidst the achronological “gangs” (clusters) of the past: a move toward small-scale, sustainable strategies for supporting environmental resilience, and continued directions of surveillance and petro-cultures.
The River is a Circle, Comp.
The River is a Circle, Winter, Daytime
The River is a Circle, Summer, Nighttime
Conversations (interviews): Greg Pierotti; Dr. Marcia Schofield; Sunk Shore (Clarinda Mac Low and Carolyn Hall); Hudson River Park Trust (Carrie Roble, Toland Kister, Siddhartha Hayes, and Rachel Swanson); Russell Shorto, historian and author of The Island at the Center of the World (2005); Joe Baker, Executive Director, The Lenape Center; Abigail Simon, artist; Lucien Samaha, artist; Kristen Lovell, director of The Stroll (2023); Jean Foos, artist; Una Chaudhuri, Dean for the Humanities, NYU College of Arts and Science.
Additional Thanks: Valerie Amend, bitforms gallery, Heather Davis, Krista Davis, Ceyenne Doroshow, Waqia Abdul-Kareem, Egyptt LaBeija, Processing Foundation, Steven Sacks, Derrick Schultz, Gary Wasserman, Alison Wong, and Matt Wolf
Special thanks to Christiane Paul for her guidance and feedback, and to Faith Kaufman and the Whitney Museum’s Graphic Design Department for their fantastic work designing the glossary.