New York, My Love

Each one of us, the city dwellers, has a very personal relationship with New York. The truth is, for most of us, New York is not just a place to live. New York is our strict teacher, a relentless life coach, for some a passionate lover and for most, a dear friend. Each one of us sees a side of New York others might not know. Each New Yorker has a favorite spot, a place, that feels like the essence of the city. Those of us who are artists, have strived to reveal that special part of the city to others. That is what I had been doing before the lockdown. I took numerous trips to Coney Island, where so many cultures meet and celebrate this hot and beautifully messy melting pot together. With the pandemic, so many New Yorkers, including myself, lost the part of the city they loved so much. The places still exist, but their soul, the people, the energy have been gone for so long. Where did it all go? Will it ever come back?

Here is what I believe: it is not completely gone. It lives in our hearts and minds. Now is the time to let it out, to nourish it, so it grows strong again, so we could all see our dearest friend in all its beauty.

-Lynn Bianchi

New York pre-pandemic is Lynn’s celebration of the city that she calls home since 1968. Her particular interest is Coney Island - with its eclectic group of diverse characters and personalities.

new york, new york

Lynn Bianchi’s New York, New York is her first video work dedicated to the city, its sounds and magic. It focuses on the feelings and alchemic effects that transform a daily view of the Hudson river into a layered video work. As in a well-organized spectacle numerous little epiphanies slowly become part of a balanced composition.

“I recorded the first one while contemplating the view, fascinated by a jazz musician practicing with his saxophone. The second one is composed by the voices of three friends of mine. I invited them to hum a few famous American melodies like “New York New York” and a few others. They recorded them in their apartments in NYC, and then sent them to me, to become part of a larger portrait of my city.”

ya ya sunglasses

A collaboration with her friend and artist Irina Abraham, this multimedia artwork captures the visceral feeling of Coney Island. A woman suspended in awe of the city of joy. The sunglasses reflect not just a place but a feeling of a place in a moment of time.

Star Spangled Brighton Beach

We are presented with a picture of a regular day on Brighton Beach. The beach goers are enjoying the sun and the sea while a woman in the foreground is looking intently at something in the distance... Meanwhile a whole other world is coming alive inside of her body as if on a canvas.

coney island allison

“In Coney Island Allison I play with the concepts of reality and non-reality, questioning the elusive nature of images as documentation of both facts and ideas. At the same time I highlight our connection with the environment, referring to some of my recurrent underlying topics, such as the relationship between the eternal and the everyday and the tension between chance and the deliberate.”

coney island series

The series are inspired the environment of Coney Island, where you never know what to expect and anything may happen. It represents the history of the place as well as the freedom to live in the present moment.

Venus At The Beach_2mb.jpg — Coney Island Series

click to see the series

bubbles by the sea

A Billboard opens sharing fancy

Of what is and what could be.

Bubbles fly,

Old bones travel,

and children find their way.

While on the sands are songs of love,

Of moans and touching hands,

While old bones travel, children frolic

And the bubbles find their way.

Conversations - 1.jpg — New York in Pandemic

In the socially distant year of 2020 Lynn is unable to get close to her subjects. She films and photographs them from the distance, studying this new reality - New York is still strong and determined, though emptier and quieter than ever.

Pandemic Times

Pandemic Times is a series of images depicting the strange and surreal new world of 2020. There is willingness to socially distance and be together at the same time. Most of these images Lynn Bianchi took at Prospect Park and around her own Brooklyn neighborhood.

therapy dogs

In the new socially distant world of 2020 we are often unable to be close to a lot of the people that we love. As a form of consolation and meditation Lynn Bianchi started regularly watching dogs in the park – a therapy of sorts that made her feel less anxious about the world. In Therapy Dogs she recreates that feeling of a surreal joyous dog heaven – a reminder that we are not alone and our closest friends are never far. All of the dogs were photographed and filmed in Brooklyn in 2020.

In 2021 Lynn is watching the city from her window, still apart, and yet New York is reawakening, there is hope in the air. She is reimagining the city and its spirit in a new video work “New York Minute”.

new york minute

This work continues Lynn Bianchi’s relationship with New York City and its inhabitants - her home and inspiration since 1968. New York Minute was developed and created during lockdown - the year of loneliness and isolation - yet Lynn never felt lonely because the city was right outside her window - still alive and forever hopeful. A love letter to New York, this work is an abstraction of one day in the city - from dawn till dusk - moments that last a minute, or maybe a lifetime.