#mingfay

Ming Fay’s “Shad Crossing” (2004) at Delancey Street-Essex Street (F/J) celebrates the return of the once abundant shad fish to New York. These river herring typically spend the majority of their adult lives at sea and migrate up coastal rivers like the Hudson River in the spring. Considered a delicacy, shad played a vital role in the region’s history, however, due to pollution, overfishing and the construction of dams, migrations have declined, and commercial and recreational shad fisheries were closed in 2010. Ming Fay continues to investigate the symbolic relationship between the natural world and human needs or desires in his show “Beyond Nature”, on view at Sapar Contemporary through June 1.

Wondering how you can celebrate #ArborDay as you commute through NYC? Look no farther than the Manhattan-bound side of the Delancey-Essex Street Station (F) where Ming Fay’s mosaic “Delancey Orchard” (2004) was inspired by the DeLancey family’s eighteenth century farm, which stretched from the East River to the Hudson River. The farm's cherry orchard was located where Orchard Street now stands!

The first thing visitors to New York City see when they get off the westbound F train at the Delancey and Essex St. station in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the first port of entry for so many immigrants over the years, is a mosaic of a flourishing cherry orchard—the Delancey Orchard that once stood on the land above this station. On the opposite track, the last stop before crossing into Brooklyn, is a pair of shad, a local fish that has made a resurgence in recent years. As passengers wait to cross the Williamsburg Bridge Ming Fay’s depiction of the shad, installed in 2004, uses the runs they make through local rivers every spring to make a statement about the waters those millions of immigrants have crossed to make a new life. Shanghai-born Ming Fay grew up in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. in 1961. He now teaches sculpture at William Paterson University in New Jersey, and more of his work can be found on benches for the Staten Island Ferry terminal.