Artist Spencer Finch created a site-specific glass work for the High Line in New York City. “The River That Flows Both Ways” is made up of 700 individual panes of glass, each hued to represent a colour of light reflected off the Hudson River photographed by Finch throughout the day.
From a tugboat drifting on Manhattan’s west side and past the High Line, Finch photographed the river’s surface once every minute. The colour of each pane of glass was based on a single pixel point in each photograph and arranged chronologically in the tunnel’s existing steel mullions. Time is translated into a grid, reading from left to right and top to bottom, capturing the varied reflective and translucent conditions of the water’s surface. The work, like the river, is experienced differently depending on the light levels and atmospheric conditions of the site. In this narrative orientation, the glass reveals Finch’s impossible quest for the color of water. See more at: