Art Installation Pays Tribute to Soon-to-be-Gone Empty Lot in Historic Sugar Hill

SUGAR HILL, MANHATTAN, NY — An art installation that lit up the historic Sugar Hill district late Thursday night was in response to an empty lot that has been sold and will soon give way to a new development.

The installation, created by artist Sarah Cameron Sunde, is titled "Across An Empty Lot," and stands as a temporary memorial to the empty space. Located at the corner of 152nd Street and St.Nicholas Avenue, the installation will go up for one more night on Sept. 11 from 8-11 p.m.

A flier describing the installation says, "Across An Empty Lot marks the present moment by honoring the empty space that will soon be gone. A continuous, large-scale video projection activates the century-old wall of 849 Saint Nicholas Avenue. The footage is captured from within the community and depicts plants, clocks, and hands - all in connection to a wall or vertical space. Text is collected from passerby who are asked to imagine what the wall might say if it could speak. The video content accumulates throughout the project's duration, creating a temporal portrait of the neighborhood."

The empty lot in the 840 block of Saint Nicholas Avenue was sold for $3.1 million in late April, city records show.

The borders of the historic Sugar Hill district extend from 145th and 155th street between Amsterdam and Edgecombe avenues.

Images: Feroze Dhanoa/Patch