This Artist Wants You to Look Up and Savor a Balloon Rainbow

NEW YORK — Pier 17 in the South Street District was teeming with people craving to be near the water. It was a hot Saturday afternoon, and the East River sparkled in the sunlight, the salty lower Manhattan air carried the beats of familiar contenders for song of the summer.

Adding to the festive vibe was a ceiling at the back of the pier covered with dozens of balloons — yellow, red, sea foam and kelly greens, magenta, orange. Ranging in size from 2 feet wide to almost 10 feet wide, the dozens of balloons hang above a bar with benches that offer sweeping views of Brooklyn.

“Anyone taking a breezy walk on the water can come over here, and they see it and they’re touched by it,” said Jihan Zencirli, 33, the artist, known as Geronimo, who designed the installation, which was unveiled June 30 at a colorblock party. “My work is about looking up and getting out of yourself for a moment,” she added.

The installation is an eye-catching celebration of the revived Pier 17, transformed after its first renovation in decades. The pier, poking out over the East River just below the Brooklyn Bridge, was once an active seaport, long a hub for international trade for New York City. But it had endured decades of wear and tear. Then it took a pounding several years ago from Hurricane Sandy.

These days, a new four-story building, lit up in warm pinks and cool blues at night, sits on the river’s edge. ESPN has built a studio there with a green room that overlooks the river, and a rooftop — with highly Instagrammable views of Brooklyn — has a concert space sprawling over an acre. The band Kings of Leon will play there in August. Celebrity chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and David Chang will soon have restaurants on the lower part of the pier, joining a bar and a walkway that extend over the water. It’s all part of a broader revitalization of the Seaport District, which has included the development of 12 buildings.

“I think the whole seaport district is going to be really experiential,” said Saul Scherl, president of the tri-state region for Howard Hughes Corp., which is overseeing the redevelopment.

“When you come here, you’ll always experience something different,” Scherl added. “Today was a phenomenal colorblock party. Tomorrow, you are going to have family day out on the seaport square. In a few weeks, we’ll have movie night on the rooftop.”

As for Zencirli, the balloons also represent a moment for her as an artist. For most of her 10-year career, the life span of her work has been fleeting. That was the case with her display last winter at New York City Ballet’s Art Series, in which her balloons adorned the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. Now, she has a piece that will survive longer than just a few days or weeks.

The balloons at Pier 17, which are made of biodegradable, post-consumer recycled plastic, are laser cut and hand forged in Los Angeles. They are designed to last four months, which is when the installation closes.

Balloons have been a central part of Zencirli’s work for years. In 2011, she tied tassels to the bottom of balloons and gave them to people as she drove around Los Angeles on a moped. “It was kind of like a performance art,” she said.

After a friend asked her to post photos of the balloons on her blog, she started getting requests from around the world and from celebrities, including the Kardashians and LL Cool J.

Before that, her direction as an artist was unclear. At 19, she moved to New York City to “do my own thing,” and “failed miserably.”

“I failed at every job I had because it wasn’t genuine to me,” she said.

Zencirli went home to Seattle to care for her ailing grandmother. After her grandmother died in 2010, she decided it was time for her to create again, and that’s when she moved to Los Angeles.

Seven years later Zencirli received the Edge Award for emerging talent at the Los Angeles Design Festival. The festival noted that Zencirli creates “arguably the most recognizable public art installations in the country.”

Back in New York on that Saturday, as a band heavy with horns and drums played, Zencirli danced her way to the back of the pier. She was wearing large hoop earrings with “Geronimo” written in cursive and a white suit covered in green, blue, yellow, purple and red butterflies that she hot-glued onto the suit herself.

She was celebrating summer, a new pier and her latest New York installation.

“It’s’ nice to have a simple art that stands on its own and creates an emotion” in people, Zencirli said. “I try not to overcomplicate it.”