Wake, commissioned by Times Square Arts, is a 24-foot-tall installation that evokes the hull of a shipwreck crossed with the skeletal remains of a marine mammal. The structure is linked with a carved, 21-foot tall animatronic female sculpture, accurately derived from a figurehead of the opera star Jenny Lind, that was once mounted on the 19th Century clipper ship, the USS Nightingale.

The artwork calls forth both the city’s triumphs and the complicated layers of its past. New York City has become a center of trade, commerce, finance, entertainment, and tourism, but also has a complex history that included the shipping (by the USS Nightingale, among others) of guns and slaves, that augmented this burgeoning city’s economy. The expanding past economies are prologue to our current environmental dilemma.

The physical presence of Wake will serve as an entry point into Unmoored, an ambitious 21st Century mixed-reality public art project that will be a draw for all ages and backgrounds.

Docents will be available by Wake on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2-8 pm and weekends from 12-6 pm until September 5, to engage with the public and share information about Wake and Unmoored.