“passage”

15’x32’, crushed glass, beach stone

On April 17th 1524 Giovanni Verrazzano set eyes on New York harbor, he was the first European to do so. Serene and verdant, it was a wilderness, untouched except for a tribe of local Indians that lived along its banks. Verrazzano claimed this land for the King of France, giving it the name “Angouleme”. His actions that day set forth a progression that continues to the present.

“passage” quotes the words of Verrazzano. Set in blue crushed glass it describes his first impressions of what became New York City. His words were formed by sifting glass through stencils onto a bedding of rounded beach pebbles. The text was later walked on, dispersed into the stone to be lost forever, much like the wilderness that he viewed that day.