New York City. Hustle and bustle. Traffic. Honking cars. Pedestrians rushing by. A concrete jungle that can swallow you whole.

But what if you could use all that concrete to help you pause? Take a breath. Slow down and let yourself drift away for a few fleeting moments. With The Drift, the show currently running at The Shed, you can.

THE MAGIC OF DRIFTERS

The Drifters are, without a doubt, the main attraction in Studio DRIFT’s art installation currently on display at The Shed in New York’s Hudson Yards. The giant concrete blocks that float effortlessly through the air have been intriguing audiences ever since the Pace Gallery brought one to the Armory Show in 2017.

Designed to float and move at slow speed on a controlled three-dimensional path, The Drifters are meant to provoke thought. The studio founders Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta put it perfectly: “On its own the concrete block is nothing, lost in space and time without reference to anything; it is always searching to be part of something bigger. Drifter wants to make people feel that without context they are lost. Without context, the object feels alien, divorced from its source. Drifter shows how unknown the world and its mechanisms still are to mankind and emphasizes the urge to expand our horizon and evolve in time.”

And they do just that at the Shed. Once you’ve made your way through the other parts of the show (more on those later), you'‘re asked to pause briefly in the waiting room. Here you’re treated to a couple of short films: one showing The Drifters levitate across the world, making their way over verdant highlands, weaving through forests and reflecting in the rushing water of mountain streams below. The other movie hits closer to home: The Drifters navigate the air above Manhattan’s busy streets. Now you’re primed for the “performance.”

The curtain lifts and you make your way into the massive space with several Drifters hovering in a perfect line above your head. Some people sit down, others stretch out on the concrete floors. Lights dim, music starts and The Drifters above you start moving. A forward slide here, a spin there, coming closer and closer until you feel you can touch them, only to have them pull away just out of reach. It’s mesmerizing and it takes some discipline to put the camera away and just enjoy the moment. I loved it.

BUT WAIT… DON’T SET YOUR EGO ASIDE JUST YET

The Drifters are the main draw, but visitors would miss out if they did not stop in the room that showcases another Studio Drift installation, Ego. Introduced in 2020, “Ego” is a kinetic sculpture made out of translucent mesh fabric that morphs, inflates, floats, stretches and collapses, only to lift up again a few moments later. The founders see it as a representation of our hopes, truths and emotions that evolve along with our own mind. Linger, ponder and see how your own belief system works. Is it rigid, or is it fluid?

The Drift is on display at The Shed in New York City through December 19.

Studio DRIFT was founded by Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta in 2007. Based in The Netherlands, the team focuses on creation of experiential sculptures, installations and performances, combining hidden properties of nature and technology to help humans re-establish their connection to the Earth. Their work has been shown at Victoria & Albert Museum; Met Museum; Stedelijk Museum; Biennale di Venezia; Pace Gallery; and now at The Shed in New York City.