Shapes in Space

Floor 5

Open to all ages

Explore Torkwase Dyson’s Liquid Shadows, Solid Dreams (A Monastic Playground) on the Whitney's fifth-floor terrace, where you’re invited to touch, sit, and engage with the installation. Afterward, head over to the pop-up art space nearby to create your own artwork inspired by Dyson’s use of shape, space, and light.

Dyson thinks of the installation as a kind of playground, inviting visitors to interact with it by touching, sitting on, and experiencing it in a hands-on way. She believes that freedom is found in movement and imagination. Dyson designs large-scale shapes, using light and space to create abstract forms that change throughout the day and night as the sun and moon move through the sky.

For Dyson, the connection between abstract art and Black identity is a central philosophical concern that grew out of an examination of the built environment. The relationships between ecology, belonging, and personal history take on new meaning with the terrace’s view of the Hudson River and the Museum’s location in one of New York City’s most vulnerable flood zones.