Aerial Photos of The Encampment at Southpoint Park Roosevelt Island

Photo by Stephen Amiaga

Photo by Stephen Amiaga

Anyone who attended the recent Encampment public art project at Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park knows that it is a truly unique waterfront site with exquisite views of the East River and Manhattan/Queens skyline. Southpoint should not be the site for the Louis Kahn/FDR memorial.

Roosevelt Island 360 adds his voice on the subject of the memorial:

What I am fully against is what this is becoming … a hyphenated memorial to Louis Kahn in addition to FDR.

My primary concerns regarding the design of this memorial are (1) the potential loss of the natural 360 degree views afforded by the current space, (2) the loss of the natural green space itself, and (3) my concern that the space will no longer be allowed to play host to events like the summer time outdoor movies series and projects on the scale of "The Encampment". Certainly The Encampment would not have had the same sense of a pitched campground sitting between granite walls inscribed with FDR’s Four Freedoms speech.

Having a memorial would be acceptable if it does not impinge on the access the island population enjoys. It would be one thing if the memorial was built either before the resident population grew to its current level or before the original WIRE buildings were completed but now the voices of the island’s residents should be given weight over the Kahn fanatics and the memory of a former President especially since there are other memorials to FDR here in NYC and elsewhere.

Aerial images of The Emcampment are from Thom Sokoloski.

More Encampment Photos from Roosevelt Island

Here are a couple more photos from Roosevelt Island's The Encampment. These photos were sent in by Ghila Krajzman. Thanks!
More images from Curbed and Roosevelt Island 360
Blogger Scoboco recaps and summarizes the Encampent as well as provides the final image.


I remember backing out of a tent, hearing a wailing cry, turning around to see what was the cause of the noise and seeing a women walking very slowly holding a baby in her arms. I must admit being a bit frightened by her. Very effective!

Seeking an Aerial View of Roosevelt Island's "Encampment"

Returning from an out of town trip yesterday afternoon, the flight path of the plane took me directly over the "Encampment" installation on Roosevelt Island. It was quite stunning seeing dozens of white tents lined up in rows on Southpoint Park from a plane flying above them.
The view at night of the illuminated tents from a plane must be spectacular.
If anyone out there happens to be on a plane or a helicopter flying over Roosevelt Island, or knows someone who is, please try to take some photos and/or video of the installation and send them to Thom Sokoloski, the creator of the Encampment.
The Toronto Star on the "Encampment".

As hundreds of New Yorkers walked among the some 100 vintage pale white tents on Roosevelt Island last night, every one silhouetted against the brilliant New York skyline, they couldn't have known how close "The Encampment," by Toronto artist Thom Sokoloski, came to being shut down even before it could be put up.

New York is now discovering the most compelling installation in its own backyard since the salmon-coloured fabric of Christo's and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates" brightened up a wintry Central Park in 2005. They won't have long, though. "The Encampment" comes down after tonight.

Problems earlier in the week when:

On Tuesday, he even felt he might have to abandon entirely the $100,000 project until a supporter came up with the needed money in the last minute. Local bureaucracy wasn't particularly helpful, either. The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) had withdrawn the promise of some $12,000 in funding, after promising its financial support earlier this year.

By yesterday, though, the last of the 99 other Civil War-style dog tents were finally in their not-quite symmetrical militaristic rows. These were the final touches on the scrubby site across the East River from the United Nations that had been transformed by visiting school kids putting up tents, busloads of hospital patients helping to fill them with artifacts, the arrival of the New York Times, Fox TV and other media outlets, as well as some well-timed appearances by local politicians.

With the problems fixed:

Now Sokoloski had every reason to be cool. "It's a wonderful moment when everyone going by, in boats or planes overhead or driving along the Roosevelt Parkway, first sees the lights in the tents," he says. "What did I do here? I created a model of sociability. I worked with people. I shook their hand."

Image is from All New York Tours.

The Encampment Arrives on Roosevelt Island

The Weblicist of Manhattan visited The Encampment on Roosevelt Island and came back with some stunning images including the one above. The photo blogger describes the experience as follows:

I took the Roosevelt Island Tram over to see The Encampment By Thom Sokoloski. It was quite fascinating. He had set up 100 Civil War Canvas Tents on the Southpoint of the island next to the old asylum. They were illuminated from within and each one told a different story about the people who had been interned in the Island Hospital between 1828 and 1955.

The New York Times describes the difficulties and challenges in getting The Encampment finished.

In the 80-degree weather of yesterday morning, a dozen volunteers showed up to help; most encountered a locked gate. Though Mr. Sokoloski spent months assembling the proper permits, security had been a constant issue: the site, part of what will become Southpoint Park, is usually closed to the public. Homeland Security officials were on high alert because of the United Nations General Assembly meeting just across the East River, and the police threatened to shut things down because of a miscommunication.

By noon only a dozen tents had been set up, and few were filled. Mr. Sokoloski’s partners, Jenny-Anne McCowan, a choreographer and outreach coordinator, and John McDowell, a composer, busied themselves marshaling the volunteers.

Even the construction supervisors — four Canadian military re-enactors, with extensive experience in putting up tents — were sweating. The exhibition, part of the annual Openhousenewyork weekend, was several hours behind schedule.

But Mr. Sokoloski, a Toronto-based artist who seems younger than his 57 years, remained calm. A former theater director (he worked at La MaMa in the 1980s) and location scout for movies, he is adept at making big projects work, like an opera he staged in Toronto’s main train station in 1992.

“It’s one thing after another, but you get used to it,” Mr. Sokoloski said. “You just keep going till the last moment, because who knows what will happen tomorrow?”

Of course, The NY Times was wrong in stating that Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park "is usually closed to the public". In fact, Southpoint Park is usually open to the public unless there is some sort of security advisory in effect.
But the NYT does have a nice slide show of the Encampment including the tent image below.

The Encampment Opens Tonight

Via Curbed, The New York Post on The Encampment.

The largest public art project to hit the city since "The Gates" in Central Park will be on display beginning tonight when a field at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island is filled with 100 illuminated canvas tents called "The Encampment."

The Encampment will:

shed light on the island's murky and painful history as home to psychiatric and smallpox wards.

And:

will tell a history of the hundreds and thousands of people . . . who have gone through social, mental, medical and penal confinement on this island," he said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

The fun begins tonight.
The image is from one of the Encampment installations from by Alison Nastasi. Very cool.

Help Install The Encampament - Telling Roosevelt Island Stories

Today's NY Sun has an article on preparations for The Encampment, a participatory public art project to be held on October 5-7 at Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park as part of the Open House New York weekend. The article illustrates Encampment creator Thom Sokoloski's task helping participants:

designing installations that would tell visitors about the island's complicated, and often grim, history.

For example:

A woman named Amanda was further along in conceiving her installation, about a doctor at the lunatic asylum, who was, according to an article in Harper's, the object of affection of two of his female patients. The patients, known as Fanny and Moonshine, expressed their love by leaving the doctor bouquets made of grasses, strips of paper, or rags. Amanda was planning to hang these around the tent, possibly with cards in them telling the women's stories. Mr. Sokoloski nodded. "I like the idea of what those bouquets signify, because it's very primitive and primal, communicating through objects," he said.

And:

For some of the participants in the project, the island's history as a destination for the city's outcast and forgotten probably doesn't seem so far away. A group of patients from Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital & Nursing Facility — which offers long-term care for people with spinal cord injuries or HIV/AIDS, as well as medical care for undocumented immigrants or homeless people — are designing 20 tents.

One patient chose a story about a young man with tuberculosis who jumped to his death off the south point of the island, Ms. McCowan said. When she asked him why he chose that story, he said it reminded him of his own friends who had committed suicide. Another young man with a spinal cord injury decided to use his installation to tell his own story. "He said, ‘I'm still here,'" Mr. Sokoloski recalled.

If you are interested in volunteering to help set up The Encampment installation below are some of the ways you can assist.

Set-up and Strike of the tents:
Friday, October 5th: 8am to 2pm - 9 people
Monday, October 8th: 8am - 2pm - 8 people

For the 3 nights of presentations:
We have 2 shifts per night (6:30pm - 10pm / 10pm - 1:30am) - total of 16 people each night
Roles are as follows: Site supervision, roadway guidance and front of house

If interested please contact Thom Sokoloski.

Encampment Volunteer Blogs Roosevelt Island

A volunteer from the Encampment project is blogging about her experiences on Roosevelt Island. Here, here and here.

This amazing exhibition will take place over the course of three nights (October 5th, 6th, 7th, from 7p.m. to 1a.m. each night). You will be able to view installations created by nearly 100 different artists, each installation somehow informed/inspired by the history of the people of Roosevelt Island and the history of the island itself. There is no guest list--this is a free event, open to the public. Please come and take part in this unique event.

The Encampment Update - Call for Creative Collaborators

Thom Sokoloski, the artist behind The Encampment (October 5-7), sent a message asking for those interested in participating in the creation and realization of this project to be installed at Southpoint Park Roosevelt Island to contact him at EncampmentCollaborators@gmail.com. If you are interested please contact them by September 1.
A You Tube video link to an earlier version of the Encampment is here.

The Encampment Public Art Project - Are the Gates Coming Next to Roosevelt Island?

A Christo Gates like public participatory arts project called the Encampment by artist Thom Sokoloski is coming to Roosevelt Island during Open House New York in partnership with the Roosevelt Island Historical Society and Roosevelt Island Visual Arts Association. The project is scheduled to be presented from October 5 - 7 and will place 100 19th century expedition style tents at Southpoint Park. Throughout September the public will be encouraged to participate in the Encampment's creative process.
The Encampment is described as follows:

The Encampment is a large-scale public participatory art installation. One hundred - 19th century expedition-style
tents will be erected as a work of optical art on Roosevelt's Island Southpoint. Though the work can be seen during
the day, its experience is truly a nocturnal one. New Yorkers along both sides of the East River will be able to view the
symmetries of the interiorly lit tents all night long, while the public can experience the installations created by
volunteer creative collaborators within each of the tents from 7pm -1am, October 5-7, 2007.
Since the creation and completion of The Encampment requires the participation of the public, we invite the residents
of Roosevelt Island, as well as multi-disciplinary artists and students focused on art, design, architecture and the
performing arts to join in the creative process. Throughout September they will collaborate with the Creative Team to
research the stories, people, culture, architecture and history of Roosevelt Island. They will have the choice to design
an installation for one of the tents, take part in choreographed ceremonies, partake in a musical landscape or join the
production crew that puts it all together!

The Toronto based creators of the Encampment are also promoting a 24 hour Art Adventure to view the project which includes a private jet from Toronto and a gourmet meal. We don't know if the gourmet meal is on Roosevelt Island or not.

In this 24-hour art adventure you will travel by private jet from Toronto to New York and be chauffeured to the elegant Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, which overlooks The Encampment on Roosevelt Island. That evening you will be treated to a gourmet dinner and be a VIP guest at the premiere of the artwork. Throughout the night and following day you will experience The Encampment from a multitude of perspectives: from your hotel room above, on the East River and at the site itself. The creative team will also guide you on an exclusive tour of Castle Williams, the site of their next work The Babel Symphony, before returning by jet to Toronto.