Arts for Transit and Urban Design

Riverdale

Dennis Oppenheim

Rising and Setting, 2006

Perforated painted steel sculpture on station grounds

For Metro-North's Riverdale railroad station in the Bronx, Dennis Oppenheim created a low-relief, brightly painted metal sculpture in the shape of four houses. They seem to be ascending and descending in the way the sun rises and sets, and thus the title, Rising and Setting. The sculpture, installed outdoors, is painted in shades of yellow, orange and blue. The artist explaines, "This work evokes the daily cycle of commuters, those who leave in the morning and return at night. Instead of the sun rising and setting, the neighborhood itself is shown engaging in a similar movement from the bright, early morning to the dark, late evening."