Giant Oyster-Shaped Installation Made of Recycled Shells Pops Up on Governors Island

Mohawk artist Alan Michelson's monumental oyster sculpture on Governors Island, constructed from recycled shells and designed as a contemporary Indigenous geoglyph, honors the Lenape communities whose shell middens once lined the harbor while reconnecting the site to ongoing oyster reef restoration by the Billion Oyster Project, which has been recycling discarded restaurant shells to rebuild reefs across New York Harbor for over a decade.