Andrea Cote Unveils 'A Port of Views' in Mitchell Park

Photos courtesy of Andrea Cote

Local artist Andrea Cote finally unveiled her latest project, ‘A Port of Views’ on Saturday, May 30 at the Observation Deck in Greenport’s Mitchell Park.

“There was a really nice crowd,” Cote said. “It was a really nice event, a number of friends came and a lot of locals came out.”

During the event, Greenport Mayor David Nyce came out to say a few words before Cote spoke to the crowd about the inspiration for her project and to give thanks to all of her supporters.

After the event, when the sun was setting on the beautiful day, Cote’s project, which sits between the Village and the landscape, ’came to life’ in the sunset.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “It wasn’t until the day it was installed I got excited.”

According to Cote, it was the perfect spot for her project, a sculpture, which consists of a wheel that rotates to reveal her photographs of the eyes of 16 locals printed on transparent plexiglass.

However, this perfect spot wasn’t the original spot Cote had in mind when she originally thought of the project last spring.

Back in October, Cote went in front of the Greenport Village Board to present her proposal for her project to be installed by the Camera Obscura near the Marina at Mitchell Park.

The Board voted to reject her proposal after they found ‘issues’ with putting the project in the spot, according to Cote.

After a suggestion from a friend to install the piece in another part of the park, Cote went back to the board, who then approved her proposal.

“It looks like it’s meant to be there,” Cote said. “It’s a piece meant for the public so it’s exciting to see that it’s doing that.”

The spot was especially perfect since her project, which focuses on Greenport’s history, sits on the spot where a hill, which previously gave Greenport it’s name of Greenhill, was flattened to make the port, according to Cote.

“It brings it back in time to when it was Greenhill,” she said.

Cote, who has a background in sculpture, designed the entire sculpture but did not personally fabricate it, a first for the artist who said it was weird to have other people have their hands on the project.

SDFS Fabrication and Design, based in Brooklyn, helped to fabricate the project along while King Displays laser-cut the central plexiglass wheel and printed the photos, according to Cote.

The sculpture is just one part of Cote’s project, which consists of video interviews with five local families including: the Hortons, the Taskers, Walker-Watkins, the Costellos, and the Whites.

“They’re all very interesting,” Cote said.

All the videos are available on Youtube, and the scupture will be up at the park until the fall. Mixed-media Prints from the project are on view at Siren’s Song Gallery in Greenport.

“It was all pretty intense, less than a year ago, I didn’t know if it will all actually happen,” Cote said. “As an artist, you never know, but in the end, it exceeded my expectations. It was a nice surprise and I’m the kind of artist who likes to be surprised.”

Now that the project is finally complete, Cote has several upcoming projects, including hosting the Public Conversation with Dan Horton event on July 26 at 3 p.m. at Floyd Memorial Library- (part of Sunday Story series coinciding with Southold’s 375th Anniversary), and directing “The Gesture Jam”, a theatrical drawing event at The Parrish Museum on Friday Aug 7, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Check out a video of the interview with the Horton family below.