Night Lights at Wave Hill
For the first time in its illustrious history, Wave Hill invites the public to experience the enchantment of its garden landscape after dark. Night Lights at Wave Hill, the culmination of the institution’s 50th anniversary celebration, offers not just the unprecedented opportunity to visit on spring evenings, but also to view a spectacular installation by award-winning artist Chris Doyle, commissioned by Wave Hill to help celebrate the garden’s anniversary year. Doyle’s The Lightening: a project for Wave Hill’s Aquatic Garden combines rear-projected animation, light and sound in the serene space of the Aquatic Garden.
On Thursday, Friday and Sunday evenings from April 24 to May 24, the public is invited to explore the gardens, to experience Doyle’s immersive installation and indulge in delightful offerings from The Shop and The Café. “Night Lights will give visitors the rare opportunity to see Wave Hill as the sun sets over the Palisades, and to experience the grounds at night in an entirely new way,” notes Claudia Bonn, President and Executive Director of Wave Hill. “These evenings pay tribute to Wave Hill’s unique position at the intersection of horticulture and art—a feature that distinguishes us as a place of complex, dynamic beauty. We are especially delighted to be working with an artist as talented as Chris Doyle.”
Inspired by the lush surroundings, The Lightening provides an electrifying experience during daylight and at night. Three faceted structures hover over the water, their mirrored surfaces reflecting the garden and pool in daylight. As evening approaches, they glow with light and animation inspired by the aquatic life below. A soundscape created by innovative composer Jeremy Turner emanates from each structure, completing the experience. Night Lights at Wave Hill allows the public to view these intricate animations, inspired by life above the water, the reflective surface and the life below.
Chris Doyle: Landscape Fictions, an exhibition of Doyle’s animations and light boxes, brings the excitement of The Lightening indoors to Glyndor Gallery. Doyle's ongoing investigation of landscape and culture is evident in the three animations exhibited: "Bright Canyon" (commissioned for the Midnight Moment by the Times Square Alliance), "Apocalypse Management," and the award-winning "Waste_Generation."
A recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection Prize, Doyle explores the way that human anxieties and collective attitudes about the environment are projected through representations of landscape.
Night Lights at Wave Hill takes place rain or shine. Tickets will be available starting March 4, online and onsite at the Perkins Visitor Center.
What: Night Lights at Wave Hill
Where: Wave Hill, West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Bronx, New York
When: Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, April 24–May 24, 6:30–9:30PM
Tickets: Same-Day Tickets: $25/$20 Wave Hill Member/$12 children.Purchase in advance and save $2.No refunds or exchanges. All sales final.Tickets available starting March 4, online and onsite.
The arts at Wave Hill are supported by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The New York Community Trust, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by the Cathy and Stephen Weinroth Commissioning Fund for the Arts.
Wave Hill, Inc. is an independent, non-profit cultural institution governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. The buildings and grounds of Wave Hill are owned by the City of New York. With the assistance of the Bronx Borough President and Bronx representatives in the City Council and State Legislature, Wave Hill’s operations are supported with public funds through theNew York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the Zoos, Botanical Gardens and Aquariums Grant Program administered by theNew York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; and the New York State Council on the Arts.