Kolonihavehus, 2010

I have been seeing photos of Tom Fruin's Kolonihavehus, 2010, an installation art piece in Brooklyn Bridge park for a while and I've been meaning to see it in person. I finally got to the park recently, and it really exceeded my expectations. At first it might seem to have no real purpose, and I guess it doesn't really, but it is a delightful sight.

The garden house is made from nearly 1,000 scraps of reclaimed Plexiglass and the colors are extraordinary. I was there in the late afternoon and the sun was hitting the panels in the most wonderful ways and casting incredible rainbow shadows onto the snowy ground. 

With the Brooklyn Bridge and the Lower Manhattan skyline on the one side, and the Manhattan Bridge on the other, there is no bad viewpoint in the park. As much as I'm kind of over this arctic tundra the city has become, I am glad I got to see this piece while there is still snow on the ground—and its bright, happy colors have me dreaming even more of the impending spring.