Columbus Circle Reimagined Tue Jul 19 2019
This speculative collage traces Columbus Circle’s transformation across time, centering the tension between the natural and the man-made. Originally inhabited by the Lenape people, the land was once shaped through reciprocal relationships with nature. With the violent arrival of Columbus and ensuing waves of industrialization, that balance was severed—replaced by concrete, congestion, and colonial myth.

In this reimagining, the statue of Columbus is replaced with a Lenape chief, reframing public memory to honor those displaced. The present is depicted through a swirl of taxis, protests, and high-density traffic—punctuated by the irony of Central Park, a constructed patch of “nature” accessible only through man-made entry points. In the future, ride-shares and electric scooter flocks hint at small shifts toward sustainability, though still embedded in systems of consumption. The work engages with a cycle from harmony with the land, through domination, toward an uneasy simulation of nature.

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