“Moving Chains” will remain on Governors Island until June 2023. Then it will move to the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati — part of a third chapter, to include other site-specific works, in a location redolent with the history of river commerce in enslaved people, the Civil War, and the arc of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny.
Initiated by Creative Time, the project dates to a planned but unrealized collaboration eight years ago in St. Louis. It regained momentum after Jean Cooney and Meredith Johnson, both on the initial Creative Time team, became the heads of Times Square Arts and Governors Island Arts, respectively, with both organizations joining as co-presenters.
For Justine Ludwig, Creative Time’s executive director, the suite represents an apotheosis for one of the most searching artists of our time. “There are decades of a career culminating in this series of works in these different sites,” Ludwig said. With “Moving Chains,” she added, “everything that he’s been working on up to this moment coalesces in the piece.”
Johnson, of Governors Island Arts, said the project would show the force that conceptual art can carry, “that conceptual work that is so dense, layered and complex is also translatable and accessible to a broad public.”
On the island, watching the idea take form, Gaines was still processing. “It turns out to be this monstrous, in the best sense, piece,” he said. “Moving Chains” is definitely some kind of beast. The structure, which was built by a New Jersey manufacturer and brought over in sections by barge aboard flatbed trucks, weighs about 60 tons. Each of the 9 chains includes 214 large steel links. When the motors run as planned, — for at least five hours, five days a week — eight chains will rumble at one speed while the ninth, central one, distinguished by its rust-colored paint, will go faster — evoking, perhaps something navigating down a river, though Gaines does not force any one interpretation.
Visitors can enter the construction, the chains rumbling overhead. The floor and wall cladding are made from sapele, a sustainably harvested African wood. Outlook Hill, the island’s highest point, will afford a grand aerial view of the chains in motion. But the experience inside the piece will be multisensory: “The cladding creates a resonating space,” Gaines said. “You won’t lose your hearing, but hopefully your bones will rattle.”
