FOUR ELEMENTS, 2022

/architectural design by Simino Architects/ public art project with mural paintings by Shura Skaya/ 

The new Staten Island Hebrew Public School  is facing the ocean, endless sky, trees, and it gets a lot of sun. The building itself is a three story cement and steel simple boxlike structure. There are four pyramid-like forms covered with tiles in front of the school. The pyramids are the only elements that don’t align with the austere grid of the building as if thrown there by a giant playful child. The surfaces are hand- painted .

Each pyramid represents an element: Earth, Air, Water, Fire, so the painted images act as a periscope through which the existing nature passes through and reflects the realm of actuality to the realm of imagination.