Join Asad Raza’s High Line Plant Walk at Frieze New York
The artist is inviting Frieze fairgoers and New Yorkers to be part of a unique work that looks at the ecosystem of cities and our place in it
The artist is inviting Frieze fairgoers and New Yorkers to be part of a unique work that looks at the ecosystem of cities and our place in it
Part of the programme at Frieze New York 2025, Asad Raza’s Immortal Coil is a new participatory installation created in collaboration with High Line Art and Frieze. The work incorporates seedlings, cuttings and clippings from plants found on the High Line, selected with guidance from Richard Hayden, the High Line’s senior director of horticulture. Built in the 1930s as an elevated section of the New York Central Railroad’s West Side Line, the High Line sat derelict from the 1980s until it was developed into a unique public park in the 2000s.
The selected plant seedlings and cuttings will greet visitors as they enter the Shed, and will be open to view by the public. On the morning of Saturday 10 May, participants who sign up in advance will be given a plant and invited to walk the length of the High Line with it. At the end of the walk, they will be encouraged to take their plant home, creating a lasting and living connection between the city, the installation and those taking part in the work. Raza has also invited musician and artist Kelsey Lu to compose original music for the plants, and environmental writer Zoë Schlanger to give a lecture. Immortal Coil focuses on the endless generation of plant life, through sunlight and soil, and reproduces the High Line’s plantings on a miniature scale, distributed to the people of New York City.
Sign up to take part in Immortal Coil on 10 May.
About Asad Raza
Asad Raza (b. 1974, Buffalo, NY) lives and works in Berlin. He creates dialogues and rejects disciplinary boundaries in his practice, often taking planetary ecologies as a focus, with a strong emphasis on the participatory and performative aspects of art, and engagement with all of the senses. His projects have appeared in institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Manifesta 15, Barcelona; Gropius Bau, Berlin; Serpentine Galleries, London; Kunsthalle Portikus, Frankfurt; Ruhrtriennale, Essen; Kaldor Public Art Projects, Sydney; the Lahore Biennale; Museion, Bolzano; and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
Further Information
Frieze New York, The Shed, 7 – 11 May 2025. Tickets are on sale – don’t miss out, buy yours now. Alternatively, become a member to enjoy premier access, exclusive guided tours and more.
A dedicated online Frieze Viewing Room will open in the week before the fair, offering audiences a first look at the presentations and the opportunity to engage with the fair remotely.
Frieze New York is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing its legacy of celebrating artistic excellence on an international scale.
Main image: Asad Raza, Root sequence, 2018, Mother tongue, Long Island.
