Toshio Sasaki
	First Symphony of the Sea Completion Date: 1992 Medium: Concrete, terrazzo, ceramics Dimensions: 9'-6' x 332' x 26" Location: The New York Aquarium Address: Boardwalk and West 8th Street, Brooklyn Architect: Goldstone & Hinz Sponsor Agency: Department of Cultural Affairs Design Agency: Department of General Services

The Aquarium staff and the architect looked to Toshio Sasaki to articulate the 332 foot, concrete wall that would face the boardwalk at Coney Island as a part of the Sea Cliffs Exhibit, a state-of-the-art marine mammal habitat which is home to walruses, seals, and sea otters. For this expansive site, Sasaki developed the themes of space and time as expressed through sea imagery and motion. Beginning at the Aquarium entrance, the artist introduces familiar fish shapes in three-dimensions that appear to be swimming within the concrete and gradually becoming more shadowy beneath the broadening wave patterns. They are followed by increasingly abstract geometric shapes -- capsules, zygotes, inverted cones -- representing the vortex of the waves and egg-like forms that recall more basic forms of life in transformation. As one walks along the wall, the forms become abstract, as if to show the primordial development of ocean life. The relief was cast by the contractors in twenty-six sections, and additional elements, such as egg, shell, and fin shapes, were executed in terrazzo and ceramic and attached to the wall after fabrication. The sculpture wall comprises four tons of concrete, rises ten feet above the boardwalk, and faces the ocean.

About the Artist...
Born in Japan, Toshio Sasaki studied sculpture at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Art. He moved to New York in 1974 and lives and works in Brooklyn. He has exhibited his large-scale environmental pieces in various outdoor settings such as Wards Island and the South Beach Psychiatric Center. The First Symphony of the Sea is his first permanent commission.

Artist Quote...
I appreciate the significance of the site, bordering the beach, the boardwalk, the ocean, and the historic Coney Island area of New York City. It is my intention to stimulate the imagination, and inspire people to remain on the boardwalk, enjoying and being part of the sea environment. In using a wave pattern over the entire wall I hope to express a total energy, as conceived through time and space. The energy expressed is a complex synchronized rhythm, not human-made, but one of universal perception. I see this wall as serving several functions, practical and aesthetic. It will provide a physical and visual separation between the artificial and arranged sea world inside the Aquarium and the natural world outside, including the sea, the sunshine, and people enjoying the boardwalk. -- Sasaki, 1987