Muna Malik
Blessing of the Boats

June 12–October 31
Thursday–Sunday, 12–5 pm

Blessing of the Boats is an interactive sculpture that seeks to foster collective empathy and action through individual engagement. The work asks the viewer: 

“We have an opportunity to set sail towards a new future—what society would you build and how do we get there?”

This prompt is intended as an active meditation, with the audience invited to create an origami boat at The Arts Center onto which they can write their answer and then place it within the larger sculpture. Over a five-month season, the work will both literally and figuratively hold the collective hopes and intentions of The Arts Center’s audience. 

Visitors are welcome to bring their own boats from home with the help of the instructions below, or to make them on site following. For those who wish to create a boat on site, sealed packets with materials will be provided and a Visitor Engagement Associate will be available to answer any questions.


Instructions on folding boats


About Muna Malik

Muna Malik is an immersive artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Her passion in art lies in her pursuit to create cultural awareness and understanding through the medium of art. Her current work focuses on capturing poetic imagery and narratives of women of color and refugees.

Her work has been exhibited at Northern Spark Arts Festival, MCAD, Artworks Chicago and The University of Minnesota—Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She was the billboard artist for North Carolina for the “For Freedoms 50 State Initiative.” She recently completed exhibitions at the Band of Vices Gallery LA, Annenberg Space for Photography LA with Photoville and the International Center for Photography with “For Freedoms.” She currently has work at the Somaal House of Art in Minneapolis, MN for the Ilaaa Shalay/Since Yesterday exhibition. Her latest collage series was featured on Vogue.com and i-D Magazine.

Also on view
Meg Webster, Solar Grow Room (detail), 2016. Photo: Steven Probert © Meg Webster. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.

Meg Webster
Wave

Upper Gallery

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Courtesy of Onyedika Chuke

Onyedika Chuke
The Forever Museum Archive_Circa 6000BCE

Lower Gallery

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SUPPORTERS 

The 2021 season of programming at The Arts Center at Governors Island is made possible, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Con Edison.