During the spring of 2008, Julia Mandle worked in residency at the NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies with two classes of eighth-grade students to create the outdoor drawing Chalk Shoes to the High Line.  Throughout her residency, Mandle cast dozens of chalk shoes and educated students on the tactics of artistic interventions. The students created a drawing by scuffing the chalk shoes along the paths they will take to the High Line, set to open later this year.  Mandle’s performance, a commission by Friends of the High Line, highlighted the future public access points of the High Line, and drew connections between the neighborhood and the new park.

Without yet stepping foot on the High Line itself, the park has begun to be claimed by the public through the ritual of mark-making and walking.  By marking the paths that people have walked and will walk again, the chalk drawing directs attention to the role of collective memories in urban processes and development.  Moreover, the performance is symbolically reflective of the High Line itself, which was and will be about movement and the way in which groups and individuals – from horses to trains to pedestrians – move through space and time.  In this way the High Line operates on a performative level – a body which intersects the urban landscape with a dynamic motion and flow.

Also evocative of the High Line, the performance slowed down the pace of the city. 
As pedestrians encountered the procession of students, they took a moment to pause, investigating their daily environment from a new perspective.  This pensive moment foreshadows the quiet reflections to be experienced on the new park.