Distant Feel by Antoine Catala

This past weekend, Geoffrey and I finally made it to Surround Audience, the Triennial at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibit fills nearly every floor of the museum and, as such, is a bit overwhelming with all of its fabulous, arty things to take in over just one visit. Rather than recap the entire show, I decided to write about a few of my favorite individual pieces, one of which is this aquarium-like sculpture creation called Distant Feel, by NYC-based French artist Antoine Carala.

Distant Feel (2015) features a new symbol for empathy — E3, or two Es facing each other — and a communication campaign for a message with no product except feeling. Recognizing how an inundation of the various causes that are blared on the news and on social-media feeds can inure us to the pain of others, or the urgency of issues and movements around the world, the artist set out to rebrand Empathy and devise and distribute a more effective expression of this feeling. The project was inspired by the genesis of the peace sign and conceived as a potential generational update.

There are no fish in this tank, but the organic sculpture closely resembles a coral reef, supporting an assortment of live plants in pastel shades of pink and violet. It’s really lovely and calming to look at. I don’t remember if this piece is on the second or third floor of the exhibit, but I am pretty sure it is adjacent to the gallery with NSA Teletubbies — which is a must-see..

Find out more about the Triennial, on through May 24th,2015, at This Link!