Ceded Concrete (2023-ongoing)
"I grieve
Marching towards East River Park
You told me your big secret on the FDR
I couldn't hear you over choppers and the buzzing cars
So far"
(from Alibi by Hurray for The Riff Raff)
The John V. Lindsay East River Park runs across a stretch of urbanized coastline on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where climate change, class, and community governance issues come into sharp focus.
In December 2019, city officials launched the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, a 1.45 billion dollars initiative to reconstruct the park for climate resilience. This plan, however, sparked controversy because it replaced a former proposal that was far less invasive.
Despite fierce pushback from the surrounding community and outside groups, the demolition phase began in December 2021.
Ceded Concrete documents the park's transformation, exploring the tension between mourning and acceptance as the landscape undergoes a dramatic change.