I Lift My Lamp Beside The Golden Door: Dorothy Iannone and Three Statues of Liberty

For everyone walking on the High Line, an elevated park made in an old New York Central Railroad, the experience is more than an appreciation to an architectural city landscape; it’s also an opportunity to walk through an outdoor museum of contemporary art. A display of various art exhibitions and projects commissioned and produced by artists from all over the world.

From March 2018 to March 2019 High Line visitors had the chance to admire Dorothy Iannone’s art piece, a large-scale mural that featured three Statues of Liberty wearing dresses with colorful details complemented by the words “I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door.” Words that are the last line of the poem “The New Colossus” written by Emma Lazarus shown on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty.

Iannone piece was created as a way to showcase the message of acceptance toward immigration that the Statue of Liberty represents. A way to put emphasis in New York City and the United State long history of support of all of those in need or search of a better life. Despite that the art concept was conceived before the immigration debate escalated over the last few years, according to press communications from the High Line, the idea behind the mural was “to bring joy to an often exhausting and demoralizing political debate.”

Dorothy Iannone is a Berlin-based American artist, a self-taught painter, known for her erotic love and female sexual experiences themes ingrained in most of her artwork. In the past that led to censorship of her work, nowadays her art is share in many exhibitions across the world.

High Line, Dorothy Iannone large-scale mural for the installation at 22nd street. All photos credit: Monica Herrera