new york sunshine's walking on water installation doubles as photographic set

john margaritis — a multidisciplinary artist and founder of new york sunshine — is no stranger to using water and the sea in his projects. last year we saw how he installed a basketball hoop in the middle of the ocean. now he presents us with ‘walking on water’, an installation that also served as the photographic set for his latest t-shirt line ‘paradise kinda’, inspired in 90’s surf.

featuring a mirrored-cube, ‘walking on water’ by new york sunshine adds another layer to the water, creating an illusion of a human figure moving on top of it. referencing, or not, to one of jesus’ miracles, the installation does allude to the phrase widely used referring to an extraordinary task.

‘it took three attempts over two months to get it right, which is why it’s coming later that our line,’ comments john margaritis. ‘we had to work with the waves, wind, and weather to produce there images. the first two attempts ended with the mirrored cube drifting away after being smashed by waves.’

‘after that we had to go back to the drawing board,’ continues margaritis. ‘we reinforced the cube to the base, hammered in what it felt like 1,000 nails, added 400lbs of sandbags to the base and clear grip to the top of the cube to keep the model from sliding and anchor the installation in place for long enough to photograph.’

the result are soft-hued photographs that give out the illusion of sometimes walking on water. other times you can see how the powerful waves push even the strongest model out of balance, but still they are all surrounded by a calm feeling, by a connection between humans and nature.