Ping-Pong meets public art
The collaborative artwork of Mount Holyoke College Professor of Art Studio Lisa Iglesias is featured in a recent New York Times article about Public Art Fund's outdoor exhibition, “Between Tides.”
Mount Holyoke College Professor of Art Studio Lisa Iglesias and her sister, sculptor and Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego Janelle Iglesias, were featured in a recent New York Times story about “Between Tides,” a Public Art Fund exhibition at Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York. Their interactive sculpture “DiMeLo” invites visitors to experience art through play, music and participation.
Working together as Las Hermanas Iglesias, Lisa and Janelle create interdisciplinary artworks that reflect their Dominican and Norwegian heritage, blur traditional artistic boundaries and encourage audience participation. “DiMeLo” continues that approach by transforming a Ping-Pong table into a collaborative musical instrument.
Inspired by the sisters’ childhood experiences of playing together, “DiMeLo” incorporates percussion instruments into the surface of the Ping-Pong table so that each match creates an improvised musical composition celebrating Queens’ rich cultural diversity and evolving soundscape. Lisa described table tennis as an important part of the sisters’ creative process, saying they have often used it “to engage in problem-solving and bounce things back and forth quite literally.”
“Between Tides” features newly commissioned sculptural Ping-Pong tables by six contemporary artists installed directly on Rockaway Beach. Presented by Public Art Fund, the free exhibition is on view through Sept. 13, 2026.
Read the New York Times article.
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