Public Artist in Residence 2023

Sherwin Banfield is a Queens-based artist whose work explores journeys of identity and ancestry. His Sustainable Sonic Sculpture projects combine lighting, sound, and solar power with traditional sculpture. Banfield holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design and studied sculpture at the Art Students League of New York. He is a recipient of the Augusta Savage Grant, the Downtown Brooklyn Dumbo Art Fund Grant, and the NYC Art in the Parks grant.

Sherwin was a former AnkhLave Garden Project Fellow nominated to participate in this multi year, multi location public art program with AnkhLave.

"BROOKLYN BRANCH"

Brooklyn Branch takes the form of a solar-paneled tree that bears fruit representing hip-hop artists that blossomed out of Brooklyn neighborhoods. The tree is a metaphor for hip-hop, says artist Sherwin Banfield. “It supplied a cultural canopy to communities by offering stimulation, inspiration, and activation through music, dance, spoken word, and visual art.” Visitors to this sculpture will learn about and hear samples from Brooklyn’s hip-hop contributions.

"BOTANICAL BOOMBOX"

Botanical Boombox is a mini greenhouse boombox sculpture that houses a miniature public housing ecosystem amplifying dreams and stories of personal growth and struggle. Inside this Boombox greenhouse is an arrangement of diverse plants that symbolize the voice of voiceless, individual lived experience by local hip hop artists, sprouting through the redlined concrete of Queensbridge Houses as a metaphoric photosynthesis. The Boombox is the amplification of these voices that uses music and hip hop culture to express personal and community issues regarding growing up in their ecosystem. This project is part exposition and part celebration, exploring the overlapping layers of hip hop stories, environmental racism, surveillance, industrialization, and poverty.