Shimon Attie

Night Watch (Mikaela with Liberty), Hudson River, 2018

Shimon Attie (American, born 1957), Night Watch (Mikaela with Liberty), Hudson River, 2018, Lambda photograph, 48 x 72 in. Gift of Carey, Jill, Andrea, and Tony in honor of our father, Gerald W. Schwartz , 2019.1. Shimon Attie © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

“Night Watch was a floating media installation that traveled in the waterways around New York City during the fall of 2018. Featuring a 20 foot-wide high-resolution LED-screen aboard a slow-moving barge and tug boat, Night Watch displayed silent close-up video portraits of twelve new New Yorkers whose lives have been saved by recently being granted political asylum in the US. Most of the individuals are from the international LGBTQI communities or were unaccompanied minors when they entered the US, two of the most vulnerable groups fleeing violence and discrimination in their homelands.”—Shimon Attie