In the upper reaches of Manhattan’s Riverside Park, just north of the Riverbank sports complex, a messenger from the future has been present since last November and stands in state until August 26. When I first saw the silver sculpture, made of nickel-plated bronze by Sophie Kahn, I thought of Michael Rennie in The Day the Earth Stood Still—a humanoid in a silver suit. Still, it was hard to tell if this person was male or female or a mixture of both. The chest is flat, the stomach rounded, the face androgynous. Also, the back of the head is missing, as are the lower legs and bits of the body. It’s as if the hi-tech Borg beauty of Star Trek—Seven of Nine—were restructuring herself before our eyes. Or perhaps this form is like the nymphal skin of a cicada, the adult having squeezed out and moved on. Titled Portrait of t., Kahn’s artwork is actually based on a 3-D scan of the New York musician and performance artist tiger west, who carries the BRCA gene and recently underwent a mastectomy. The sculpture was commissioned by the the Art Students League of New York, as part of the Works in Public Program, presented in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. The “t” in the title is for tiger, but it also stands for transformation and transcendence. —Laura Jacobs

Join the Art Students League of New York and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation on August 4, at three P.M., for the closing celebration of Works in Public: Sophie Kahn & Marco Palli, which includes a performance by tiger west.