On View at 74 Trinity Street, Near the Boathouse at the Waller Creek Delta
The Contemporary Austin and the Waller Creek Conservancy present Orly Genger: Hurlyburly, 2016, the first project of a new collaboration to bring significant, large-scale public art projects to the Waller Creek parks.
New York City–based artist and designer Orly Genger creates organic forms and site-specific installations from painted swaths of woven rope, crocheting, weaving, and knotting heavy twine over the course of many months to create a single, often massive, work. Hurlyburly, installed at the mouth of Waller Creek, comes from a series of such works, created using repurposed lobster rope. In this case, much of the material has been repurposed once again, as Hurlyburly was produced using the same expanses of rope that had previously been woven and knotted for the installation Current, 2014, at The Contemporary Austin’s Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria.
Giving these recycled materials new life, Hurlyburly is a massive outdoor piece of painted and hand-knotted rope that stretches across an area directly adjacent to the mouth of Waller Creek. Recalling the languid flow of the creek, the undulating, woven structure invites visitors to interact with each other, with the work, and with the surrounding parkland.
Orly Genger (American, born 1979 in New York City, New York) currently lives in New York City and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BA from Brown University in 2001 and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002.
Genger’s recent solo exhibitions include Red, Yellow and Blue at Madison Square Park in New York City (2013); Big, Open, Empty at Larissa Goldston Gallery, New York City (2011); and Whole at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (2008). Her work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions at various venues throughout the United States, including MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2010), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2010).
Genger’s work has been featured in the collections of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH; and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Rappaport Prize, founded by the Phyllis & Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation, whose mission is to promote leadership in public policy, medical research, and art.
As part of the Austin Parks Foundation’s annual It’s My Park Day, Orly Genger: Hurlyburly, the first project in a new collaboration between the Waller Creek Conservancy and The Contemporary Austin, opens to the public.