Times Square Arts Presents Erin Johnson's LAKE For March Midnight Moment

Times Square Arts will present Lake by Erin Johnson for the month of March as part of the organization's signature Midnight Moment series in partnership with Pioneer Works. Midnight Moment is the world's largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to midnight.

To celebrate the presentation of Lake in Times Square, as well as the beginning of spring, the artist will host a Spring Equinox Gathering on Father Duffy Square on March 20, 2021. Fellow Pioneer Works artist-in-residence Luke Stewart will perform a live score to accompany the presentation of Lake.

Erin Johnson's Lake offers a moment of tranquil reflection in Times Square, depicting a group of artists engaging in what the artist calls a "collective queer and desirous exchange" while attempting to stay afloat together. The group is seen from a bird's-eye view as they move in and out of a state of suspension, drift in and out of the frame, converge and glide apart. The video reflects on notions of togetherness and feminist theorist Silvia Federici's call to "reconnect what capitalism has divided: our relation with nature, with others, and our bodies," which has become especially important in the context of the pandemic.

Erin Johnson made this work while a resident artist at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Johnson became interested in how groups of people, in this case artists, live in relation to-and support-each other. The gestures and movements in the video reflect the interpersonal and group dynamics present in this kind of collectivity: each person's movements impact the others as they try to remain close while giving each other space, attempt to stay in the frame, and hold each other up when sinking. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, this video has taken on new, additional meanings: the suspension of time, the feeling of being adrift in space, and the importance of intimacy and proximity.

Then on March 27, Pioneer Works invites viewers to a closing celebration in Brooklyn, which will include a film screening and celebration on kayaks along the Red Hook shoreline.