Commissioned by Arts & Design, Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist Chris Doyle’s "The Fluid" was a site-responsive reiteration of digital animations based on Hudson River painter Thomas Cole’s cycle of paintings "The Course of Empire." Like the earlier animations in the series, "The Fluid" continued to explore the way we view landscape through a culturally constructed frame. The piece wove together references to contemporaneous Hudson River and Japanese Edo painting, 20th-century abstraction, as well as our complex relationship to water, through its stylized depictions of landscape.

"The Fluid" focuses on the rhythmic aspects of water at every scale, from phase change to the global water cycle, and the fragility of that cycle. Presented as a constant flow, the piece drifted between forms of representation and abstraction to echo the tidal motion of daily commuters passing throughout Fulton Center.

"The Fluid" was presented by MTA Arts & Design with technical support from Westfield Properties and ANC Sports.

Chris Doyle is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York, who received his BFA from Boston College and his Master of Architecture from Harvard University.

In his animation-based practice, Chris Doyle explores aspiration and progress, questioning the foundation of a culture consumed by striving. His narratives weave historic and cultural references with contemporary relevance by reinterpreting the original narratives and using newer technologies to address timeless subjects.

His work has been shown at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Queens Museum of Art, PS 1, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Sculpture Center, and as part of the New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center.