New York City
- Marina Strocchi

‘My time in New York was spent between Brooklyn, where I lived and had a studio, and Manhattan, to where I was often travelling. The studio was in Sunset Park, on the East River in Industry City, 850 3^rd Avenue, one in a row of enormous warehouses built in 1920. I was staying in Bed Stuy, which was the seat of the Black Power movement in the 70’s and has the largest collection of intact Victorian brownstones in the United States.

Sometimes I took the D train, which rattled from Brooklyn over the Manhattan Bridge. This trip never failed to excite me, just knowing that I was on my way enlivened me. If it was early evening the lights would be twinkling over the East River and it felt like I was on my way to discovering some magic. The live music, the people, the films, the street life, the architecture, the museums and art galleries were all on offer like a fun park for grown-ups.

There is something about the energy in New York – it’s a place where people go to try to do something. It seems like a place of hope. A place where your wildest dreams might just come true. There is also the Shakespearean counterpoint to the hopes – the despair and desperation of being overwhelmed by life. One is reminded daily that New York City is a place where life is lived to the furthest extremes. Something about this kept me on my mettle and invigorated me.

Catching sight of the taxis – a streak of yellow against the skyscrapers of all eras is a strong visual memory. I try to capture a sense of life and activity in the cityscapes. The work that I did while I was there was an immediate response to the built environment that characterises New York. This is my usual way of starting a new series and can be tracked in my previous work. The sheer mass and density of the buildings, the repetition of shapes, the walls of windows, sometimes reflecting, sometimes receding, and always towering over the mere mortals who inhabit them.’

– Marina Strocchi, 2021