Times Square’s “Match-Maker” sculpture, now on display through mid-March, is made of a series of powder coated aluminum tubes that attach to a single steel column. Photo: Ka-Man Tse for Times Square Arts
Whether you’re single or attached, it’s hard not to love Times Square’s heart-shaped, red and pink architectural sculpture, called “Match-Maker,” designed to cosmically connect people this Valentine’s Day–and supported by structural steel.
Designed by Young Projects, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary design firm, Match-Maker was chosen as the winner of this year’s annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design by Times Square Arts and Van Alen Institute. It was unveiled on February 10 and will remain on view for one month at Father Duffy Square, between 46th and 47th Streets.
This interactive installation is made of powder coated aluminum tubes. Each tube is a custom piece, varying in length, angle and color. The aluminum periscopes are each suspended by a series of powder coated brackets that attach to a single steel column.
Visitors arrange themselves at twelve points around the heart-shaped sculpture. Peering through colorful, interwoven periscopes provides glimpses of each viewer’s four most ideal astrological mates, offering potentially novel connections between lonely souls or settled lovers. The form of the sculpture is elusive, complex and symmetrical, and changes as viewers experience it from different vantage points throughout Times Square. From many points of view it forms a perfect and iconic heart; from other perspectives the sculpture is tangled and perplexing.
For the past six years, the Times Square Alliance has invited architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a romantic public art installation celebrating Valentine’s Day in Times Square.
To learn more about the Match-Maker sculpture and Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, visit www.timessquarenyc.org (direct link).