Governors Island Ice Sculpture Show

PLEASE NOTE: THE ICE SCULPTURE SHOW HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FROM FEBRUARY 7 TO MARCH 8. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents the fifth annu­al Gov­er­nors Island Ice Sculp­ture Show, where ten artists/artist teams—many who have never carved ice before—will use chainsaws to bring their creations to life live on stage. Each artist/artist team will be paired with professional ice carvers from our carving partner Okamo­to Stu­dio

This thrilling live outdoor event will also fea­ture ice carv­ing work­shops from Okamo­to Stu­dio and a DJ set from Miss Ali­cia with sound by Kar­lala Soundsys­tem, along with event emcee Plant Kween. Mak­i­na Café will be open in Colonels Row along­side addi­tion­al food trucks with win­ter-themed treats.

IMPORTANT: This event will take place outdoors on Governors Island. Please dress with the weather in mind.

MEET THE PARTICIPANTS & THEIR DESIGNS

• Takashi Harada and Kae Sato (@studiotakashiharada): “Transboundary” – This design emulates the wild beta fish that live in the great Mekong River, evoking the movement and energy of the natural world.
• Rhea Marmentini (@rheamarmentini): “The Freethinker” – This design addresses reality through creative thinking with a collection of stacked spheres that ebb and flow together, representing the idea as an ephemeral and changing concept.
• Cathleen Luo (@catluo27.art): “Convergence Deity” – This design explores movement as both physical motion and collective change, with the form of human hands symbolizing the human ability to take action that can make and remake the world.
• Kris Thomas (@kristhomas.art): “Flight of the Yellow-crowned Night Heron” –Depicting a bird in flight, this work aims to highlight the diverse ecosystem of Governors Island and New York Harbor, and the importance of the work done on the Island to protect and restore ecosystems.
• Lizzy Chemel (@lil_s0uth): “Sacral Column” – This ice design depicts the vertebra from the spine of a humpback whale, which serves as both the locus of movement and a remnant from a mammalian ancestor.
• Zyia Zhang, Kiril Bejoulev, Elias Griffin, Michael Luck Schneider (@volvoxlabs): “Hybrid Biota” – This design explores movement through the choreography of a robotic arm carving ice, which will shape the block in gestures unique to the machine. The resulting work is both process and performance, becoming a kinetic sculpture in its own right.
• Salvador Gomes da Silva Filho (@salvadorgomesart): “Not Moving Backward” – This design explores the unsettling beauty of the human body through a sculptural torso with its head turned backward, questioning the notion that moving backward is inherently comfortable or unproductive.
• Karina Manta (@karinamanta): “Busking Stage” – This design creates a physical venue where a figure skater will debut a performance. Busking plays an integral role in the culture of New York City; after the skater performs, the sculpture will become a physical representation of their movements before melting away.
• Wei Xiong, Shanshan Zhang (@xiongweiii_studio): “The Birth of Us” – This design, based on the classic image of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, replaces the goddess with a human baby and replaces the scallop shells with oyster shells to indicate the characteristics of Governors Island and New York Harbor.
• David Green (@dgreenco): “Untitled” – The same way a sculpture of a galloping horse reflects movement frozen in time, this design of a breaking wave reflects water frozen into ice. As it melts, it will give the impression of the wave completing its cycle—thereby unfreezing time.

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Host or Publisher The Trust for Governors Island