Renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is transforming a New York City memorial park with a striking new public art installation that uses cat silhouettes to reinterpret military camouflage patterns. The installation, titled "Camouflage," opens on September 10 at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island, positioned directly across the East River from the United Nations headquarters.
The timing of the installation coincides with the UN's 2025 General Assembly, marking the 80th session since the organization's founding after World War II. Ai Weiwei's work involves draping the Roosevelt memorial in specially designed fabric featuring cat silhouettes that reimagine traditional wartime camouflage patterns. "It is a deeply militarized symbol," Ai explains of the tent-like structure, which is supported by scaffolding and either protects or shrouds the memorial dedicated to Roosevelt's Four Freedoms.
The Four Freedoms Park, designed by architect Louis Kahn in 1973 and completed posthumously in 2012, celebrates President Roosevelt's famous 1941 address to Congress outlining four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Ai believes presenting such an installation is crucial in today's world, which continues to be marked by ongoing wars and the threat of even greater conflict.
The installation marks the launch of "Art X Freedom," a new annual commissioning program by the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy aimed at inspiring conversations around social justice issues through public art. "Let's try to add the power of public art at a park, close to the UN, that's dedicated to government for the good," says Howard Axel, the conservancy's chief executive, who hopes to attract more visitors to make the journey to the 3.5-acre park.
The 68-year-old artist, who now lives in Portugal, had never visited the park before touring it with Axel last November. Located on the triangular tip of Roosevelt Island between Manhattan and Queens, Kahn's design features two long alleys of linden trees that converge at a colossal bronze head of Roosevelt, positioned within a granite niche. An excerpt from Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech is carved on the back of the memorial, which overlooks a square open-air plaza that Kahn called "the room."
Gina Pollara, the park's executive director who oversaw its construction from Kahn's schematic plans, explains the significance of the design. "Kahn was very aware of the fact that Roosevelt is considered the architect of the UN," she says. She describes the room as Kahn's interpretation of both a Greek temple and the UN as an organization of individual member states that compose something larger, noting that "Roosevelt used to say that all the problems of the world could be solved sitting around a dining room table talking."
Ai's camouflage fabric will cover this room and cast dappled light on visitors, encouraging them to consider what needs protection and what requires the removal of disguise to reveal truth. Inside the tent structure, LED lights spell out a Ukrainian proverb that translates to: "Wars that bring misery to some may be dear mothers to others." The artist has also collaborated with the artist-run organization For Freedoms to provide ribbons printed with each of the Four Freedoms, allowing visitors to write their own messages that will be attached to the camouflage netting during the exhibition.
The cat motif in Ai's design was partly inspired by the outdoor Cat Sanctuary & Wildlife Rehabilitation Center located just outside the Four Freedoms park entrance. "In human disasters such as wars, pandemics and environmental crises, cats are among the first to suffer," Ai explains, viewing them as symbolic of life's most innocent and easily manipulated beings. Hidden within his camouflage pattern is a single dog silhouette, which observant visitors can try to spot. "It is not only playful but also symbolic," Ai notes. "Among all the animals we love, there are different kinds. If we cannot allow those who are different to exist, civilization itself would cease to exist."
The installation will remain on view through November 10, offering visitors a unique opportunity to experience how contemporary art can engage with themes of freedom, protection, and truth in our current global context.
