Torkwase Dyson: Liquid Shadows, Solid Dreams (A Monastic Playground)

Torkwase Dyson's Liquid Shadows, Solid Dreams (A Monastic Playground) was part of the Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing 2 and is presented again on the Whitney's Floor 5 terrace from September 25, 2024–February 9, 205. The artwork is the inaugural Hyundai Terrace Commission.​​

Described by Torkwase Dyson as a “monastic playground,” this installation is meant to be activated by visitors, who are invited to touch, sit on, and experience the work in a tactile way. This prompt speaks to Dyson's conviction that liberation can be found at every register of movement: “freedom is an ongoing spatial question of motion and imagination.” Dyson composes geometries on an architectural scale using light and space as formal building blocks. Together, the monumental arcs, implied gestures, and surrounding natural light articulate changing abstract shapes over the course of each day and night.

For Dyson, the intertwining of abstraction and Blackness is a central philosophical concern that came out of an interest in public infrastructure. The relationships between ecology, belonging, and personal history take on new meaning with the terrace’s view of the Hudson River and Museum’s location in one of New York City’s most vulnerable flood zones.

Credit: Overview from museum website