I have a love/hate relationship with New York City. The bright lights, energy and controlled chaos are exciting and alluring at first. And then as the days go by, it becomes a touch overwhelming and I find myself wishing I could find a place to hide out from it all to recharge. On previous trips, I’ve used parts of Central Park to regain a sense of normalcy – those parts where the noise from the city disappears and you feel like you’re completely surrounded by nature. On my most recent trip, while I never made it to Central Park, I found another spot to get away from it all for a spell – the High Line park along the west side of lower Manhattan.

What makes this such a special place, both disconnected from New York, but also entirely in its place in the city? Many things… and on my visit, it started with a couple dancing on a park bench as the sun set that brought a smile to my face.

I got a bit lost in my own mind watching them dance. They seemed both conscious of the spectacle that was them, and simultaneously lost in each other and without a care in the world. It was a great start to removing myself from the angst and car horns whose muted noise were just below the elevated walkways of the park.

Another part of this brief escape for me was the interesting public art throughout the High Line. The first installation I came across was “pêyakotênaw” by Moose Cree First Nation artist Duane Linkletter. It is a series of tall structural elements of teepees. At about 28th Street, it forms an interesting juxtaposition between the simplistic structures in the installation and the surrounding modern architecture.

Just a few steps away was “Forgiving Change” by Timur Si-Qin. This was created from aluminum casts of tree branches from the forest fires on the west coast of the USA in 2017.

Irish born and Dublin-based artist, Mariechen Danz, created “The Dig of No Body” as a representation of the human body’s relationship to the earth. The movable sections are representative of anatomical models as well as being reminiscent of progressive layers of a geological dig. I thought this was a great piece for a created “natural” park in an urban setting that was built over a previously natural and wild island.

Great art makes you stop and ponder, and many of the installations did that for me. In front of this mural by Dorothy Iannone there was a section of stadium-like tiered seating that encouraged lingering. The line on the mural “I lift my lamp…” is engraved inside the Statue of Liberty. Seeing this very contemporary mural as a commentary on the political debate in the US on immigration, I enjoyed spending some time thinking about it here.

This piece by Sable Elyse Smith took me some time and research to decipher. On the most simplistic level, I loved the visual aspect of this. It took some reading to understand that by using the design of the iconic “Hollywood” sign as the root of this piece, the artist was making a statement about institutions that both develop real estate and prisons in America. Interesting idea and definitely a piece that stopped me in my tracks and made me want to learn more.

By this part of my stroll through the High Line, I had almost forgotten that I was in the heart of Manhattan. Walking the manicured paths of an old rail line above the city, my mind was lost in art, in wandering, and in taking in the sights of the city that surround the park.

And some of those sights and views are pretty spectacular. Nearing the southern end of the High Line, there’s a beautifully framed view of the top of the Empire State Building, made even more spectacular by the fading evening light.

The art installations in the High Line were contemporary in the truest sense of the word. In difficult social and political times in the US, Andrea Bowers’ piece “We are 11 Million” references the number of undocumented immigrants in the country and the contributions they make on a daily basis.

As I was exiting the High Line to re-enter the evening chaos of the city, Marinella Senatore’s installation on the underside of the old train tracks was a great send-off. This is part of a quotation from a feminist poet and I loved it here in capital letters in a gathering place at the High Line. It made me smile and a “Hell yeah!” went through my head. Walking the High Line from north to south, and seeing so much art referencing topics challenging society today, I felt this was a perfect bookend.