Private Views
John Hill
10. diciembre 2020
View of Central Park from an apartment in Time Warner Center (Photo: Rotated screenshot from "Private Views 2" by Andi Schmied)
Andi Schmied's forthcoming book, Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan, documents Manhattan luxury apartment towers from the inside, after the artist gained access to them by posing as a Hungarian billionaire. A short film reveals some of those visits.
Schmied has been working on the project since 2017, using her fictional persona — Gabriella Schmied, "a mother-of-two with a husband dealing with antiquities, just about to move to New York City," per her PDF portfolio — to gain access to 432 Park Avenue, 56 Leonard Street, Central Park Tower, and other apartment towers that are reshaping the Manhattan skyline this century. The project just came to our attention after it was just named the recipient of a grant from the Graham Foundation. The real estate viewings that Schmied has documented through photos and covert videos are "surreal conversations," in her words, "which offer a glimpse into this elite world."