Sundaram Tagore Gallery is pleased to have placed a monumental sculpture by Beijing-based artist Zheng Lu (b. 1978, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia) adjacent to the United Nations in Manhattan. Undercurrent, a twenty-foot-tall stainless-steel sculpture evoking a splash of water in midair, is on view in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza at 47th Street and First Avenue. The sculpture, weighing nearly 2.5 tons, was more than two years in the making and created especially for the site.
The project was initiated by Sundaram Tagore Gallery, with the support of the Art in the Parks program, overseen by New York City’s Department of Parks and Recreation, and facilitated by the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations (WCPUN) as part of its mission to raise awareness about the United Nations’ goals, including UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, concerning access to clean water and sanitation, and SDG 13 on climate change.
Zheng’s reverence for nature is often reflected in his work, particularly his Water in Dripping sculptures. For Zheng, water is a symbol of temperate planet earth, where the presence of water—a rapidly diminishing resource—permits life. As a student of Chinese philosophy, he also views water as symbolic of change, self-reflection and the passage of time. This installation reinforces the gallery’s longstanding mission to use art as a vehicle to bring people from cultures across the world together.
For nearly sixty years, NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program has brought contemporary public artworks to the city’s parks, making New York City one of the world's largest open-air galleries. The agency has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, NYC Parks has collaborated with arts organizations and artists to produce more than 3,000 public artworks by 1,500 notable and emerging artists in more than 200 parks.
Artists who have exhibited in the program include Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Sol LeWitt, Jenny Holzer, Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger, Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, Rashid Johnson and Simone Leigh.
