The Connective Project

In celebration of Prospect Park’s 150th anniversary, The Connective Project was designed by Suchi Reddy, founder of Reddymade, to transform the Park’s Rose Garden into an immersive, engaging, and ever-growing display. The large-scale public art installation featured more than 7,000 individually designed pinwheels blanketing the more than 2.5 acres of rolling green. The pinwheels were constructed of weather-resistant and compostable paper made from stone dust and printed with artwork submitted by artists, notable Brooklynites, and diverse communities that consider the Park “Brooklyn’s Backyard.”

The vision was very much influenced by the beauty and vision of Prospect Park’s designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who in 1867 transformed 585 acres of rural terrain into an urban retreat. 150 years later, visitors experienced the Rose Garden once more in grand fashion, full of color and whimsy — a nod to the creative spirit that pervades Brooklyn. “The purpose of architecture is to serve and uplift the community, and installations like this give us the opportunity to do just that,” said Reddy.

X

Suchi Reddy’s X (2019) explored how love emerges within communities where difference meets equality. An “X” evokes many expressions of interpersonal and civic love, including the written symbol for a kiss, and even the mark of a vote. People from all backgrounds cross paths in Times Square, and Reddy’s design offers them a meeting point for further exchange and connection.

Displayed in partnership with Times Square Arts, X took its titular form with two crossed aluminum planes, creating a passageway through or a snug meeting place within the 18-foot-tall structure. Round openings at the centers of the planes combined into heart shapes when viewed from different angles. X’s glowing light grew brighter as people gathered underneath its intersection. “Exploring the idea of communities as spaces of intersection led me to the tectonic expression of the ‘X,’ which fits the context of Times Square, one of the most thriving intersections of people, place, and culture, and its XXX history,” Reddy said. “X is for love.”

Me + You

Suchi Reddy’s Me +You (2021) is a two-story installation that weaves human wisdom and intelligent technology together, forming a shimmering monument reflective of visitors’ collective future visions. “I believe that the power of art lies in its ability to show us new information about ourselves, and to cause us to reflect on the human condition, our cultures and communities,” said Reddy.

The piece, a site-specific artificial building-wide exploration of the intelligence (AI) and light sculpture, is the centerpiece of “FUTURES,” the Smithsonian’s first major future. “This breathtaking installation is a powerful and fitting central destination for ‘FUTURES,’ blending humanity and technology,” said Rachel Goslins, Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Arts and Industries Building.

The work marks Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) first major contemporary art commission. “‘Me + You’ will allow people to interact with AI in a completely new way,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Amazon Machine Learning. Its blurring of responsive light, color and AI, coalescing in a human-centric form, is groundbreaking in a public artwork.