Plastique Fantastique Threads a Golden Coil Through the High Line
Plastique Fantastique’s monumental yet weightless auruBOROS curled through the High Line, reflecting the city in a mirrored pneumatic skin.
By Art Vault
September 29, 2026 · 2 min read
Image courtesy of Plastique Fantastique, shared with permission.
A giant coil of reflective gold recently threaded through New York’s High Line, curling beneath The Standard Hotel and opening a walk-through portal in the elevated park. Titled auruBOROS: Urban Memory and Collective Dream, the temporary sculpture was created by Marco Canevacci and Yena Young of Plastique Fantastique.
The work joined two intertwined pneumatic loops in a structure measuring 30 by 10 by 10 meters. Its monumental silhouette suggested polished metal, yet the golden mirrored TPU skin was physically light and held in place entirely by air.
A Serpent Opened to the City
The title combines aurum, the Latin word for gold, with the ouroboros, the ancient image of a serpent consuming its tail. Plastique Fantastique opened that closed symbol and extended it into the architecture, allowing the form to pass between the High Line’s horizontal path and the building above.
Its surface continuously remade the surrounding city. Buildings, planting, weather, sunlight, and visitors stretched across the skin in unstable reflections, so no one encountered a single complete image. The sculpture became both an object and a temporary device for seeing strangers and the landscape together.
Monument Made of Breath
Air is central to the Berlin-based studio’s practice. Here, it turned a form that looked permanent and precious into something light, fragile, and temporary. Plastique Fantastique describes that tension as part of its idea of “Public Love”: shared experiences that persist as memory after the physical work disappears.
Commissioned by Bvlgari for its Serpenti Infinito series, auruBOROS was on view from September 10 through 20, 2026, and marked Plastique Fantastique’s first exhibition in the United States. The independent commission was not affiliated with High Line Art. Explore the full project on the studio’s website and follow its work on Instagram.
All images courtesy of Plastique Fantastique, shared with permission. Source: Colossal. Additional project details from Plastique Fantastique.
