Figment is an annual art festival of sorts on Governor’s Island, a short ferry ride away from Manhattan. The longtime military base now belongs to the city and is operated mostly as a national park; it also feels strangely like a college campus.
This year’s Figment featured a 9-hole miniature golf course, City of Dreams. Though many of the sculptures and installations were only up for the official three days of the festival, the course will be open through October.
Some of the art included Malin Abrahamsson’s Diamond Dogs & water hydrant and Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Trumpet Marine, which used wind power to play a haunting three-note tune on a banjo.
Also on view from the ferry ride and the island itself are several of Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls. The project is somewhat maligned, and I felt underwhelmed seeing them water-level and up close.
