Anne Healy’s multimedia environmental sculpture at 88 Pine Street consisted of twenty-six sails of various sizes, suggestive of the maritime environment outside of the building. The artist’s restriction to triangular shapes served to connect her work with other minimalist art of the 1970s, which explored the inherent properties of geometric shapes.

In conjunction with the installation, the piece 28 feet high 80 feet long was performed by Jim Burton and his company of musicians. Burton stretched wires seven feet above the ground and across the installation space, which were also attached to a synthesizer that converted vibrations from both the sails and the crowd into sound. He and his musicians then played this scaffold of wires, as well as whiskey glasses and bicycle wheels while using other found objects such as sponges, fur, and cloth.

Sail was presented in collaboration with Orient Overseas Associates.

Photograph by Mariette Pathy Allen.

Multiple Artists

Sail

Manhattan

1974