Manahatta Waterways: a Sanctuary, 2026

“Manahatta Waterways: A Sanctuary” was commissioned as a 2026 digital art project by the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

I transformed the Fulton Center station in downtown Manhattan into an oceanic cathedral with a 52-channel video installation entitled “Manahatta Waterways: A Sanctuary” which symbolically guides viewers down from the street level on a descent through ecological and geological time. Featuring whales, corals, fish, light, and moving water, my work draws upon marine science and ornamental traditions. I envision Manahatta—the Lenape name for Manhattan—as both a contemporary harbor and a timeless reef, shaped by planetary cycles of climate and evolution.

At street level, large-scale screens feature humpback whales whose resurgence in New York Harbor followed the Clean Water Act. Seen lunge-feeding on Menhaden fish and exhaling through their blowholes, their movements form patterns echoing Chinese porcelain and Delftware—a nod to colonial histories and the cycle of reverence and exploitation.

Lower-level screens shift to reef-scale life, with footage filmed by the artist at the Long Island Aquarium in one of the largest all-living, closed-system coral reefs in the Western Hemisphere. Stony and soft corals, anemones, and colorful fish—tangs, wrasses, gobies, and angelfish—yield vibrant kaleidoscopic designs like stained glass windows.

In the subway mezzanine, an animated triptych immerses viewers in the ocean’s Mesophotic “twilight zone,” filmed at a depth of 289 feet. Blue and golden animations showcase Gorgonian sea fans, brittle stars, glassfish and anthias fish, feather duster worms, and the rare ornate ghost pipefish.

Together, these four chapters link daily transit with ecological recovery and discovery, inviting commuters to imagine a marine continuum where the city is inseparable from water—an architecture held, shaped, and ultimately reclaimed by the ocean.

“Manahatta Waterways: A Sanctuary” was presented with technical support from Westfield RISE and ANC Sports.

Thanks the following contributors for access, footage, and guidance:

• Gotham Whale: underwater footage by Celia Ackerman and above water footage by Christopher St. Lawrence
• Drone footage by Joanna Steidle
• Filming permission by Joe Yaiullo, Curator/Co-Founder of the Long Island Aquarium
• Underwater research footage courtesy of Dr. Sonia J. Rowley
• Code-based effects by Isaac Kim
• Video documentation by Tyler Ward