FRENCH ARTIST Shani Ha has created an interactive installation that may just be the best seat in New York City.
“Table for two“, located at the corner of 7th Avenue and Carmine Street, is a table split in the middle by the window of a restaurant. One half with one chair is outside on the sidewalk, and the other half with another chair is inside the restaurant.
The glass that separates the individuals who sit at “Table for two” gives them the choice to look at the person sitting across from them or to look at their own reflection. “[It] becomes a screen that both connects and isolates”, explains Shani Ha.
Those who sit at this table are offered a cup of mint tea “as a allusion to the conviviality custom in north Africa … where the artist is originally from“, but the installation also provides a moment of spontaneous connection with the self or with others that many New Yorkers may need.