Art X Freedom at FDR Four Freedoms Park
Ai Weiwei Camouflages Kahn
All photographs by John Hill/World-Architects
Camouflage by Ai Weiwei is on display at FDR Four Freedoms Park on New York's Roosevelt Island from September 10 to November 10, 2025. Designed with the Brooklyn-based design firm Camber Studio, the installation explores the essence of Roosevelt’s four freedoms and aims to “spark a dialogue about what needs protection and what requires the removal of disguise to reveal truth.”
Since its grand opening in October 2012—nearly 40 years after the death of its lead designer, Louis I. Kahn—the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park has been a static reminder of FDR's legacy and the famous Four Freedoms Speech he delivered in 1941. The park's procession leads visitors past trees, lawn, and the shores of the East River to the southern tip of the island and the “Room,” where a bust of Roosevelt is accompanied by the Four Freedoms he extolled in his speech. Yes, the leaves on the trees change color across the seasons and the steps have been emblazoned with rainbow colors for Pride Month, but the abundance of stone walls and other surfaces lend the memorial its relatively fixed expression. Looking to add some variety into the experience of the now-13-year-old memorial, the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy launched Art X Freedom, a new public art initiative “that invites artists to create site-specific installations that interrogate issues of social justice and freedom.” The inaugural installation is Camouflage by Ai Weiwei, which World-Architects visited recently, on what happened to coincide with the halfway point of its two-month duration. Our photos are below, accompanied by captions with more information on the installation.
The literal camouflage that comprises the bulk of the installation is evident immediately, covering the battered stone walls that bracket the steps leading up to the lawn.
By covering the battered surfaces that taper toward the tip of the island, the installation favors the accessible slopes along the shores of the East River.
Although it is difficult to grasp, the camouflage image is comprised of cat patterns, not abstract designs, which relate to the cat sanctuary nearby on the island and remind visitors “that while human beings face crises of their own making, animals bear the brunt of these consequences, entirely innocent yet deeply affected.”
Visitors are invited to take ribbons whose colors correspond to the Four Freedoms—freedom of speech, of religion, from want, and from fear—and write messages on them…
…after which the staff ties the ribbons to the mesh holding the camouflage in place.
The ribbons tied to the east side of the memorial spells out “FOUR FREEDOMS” in uppercase letters.
The tapered plan and section of Kahn's memorial leads visitors to the bust of FDR and the “Room” that he saw as tapping into the origins of architecture.
On approaching the room, more and more of Camouflage is visible.
Ai Weiwei and Camber Studio's timber-frame structure draped in camouflage serves as a backdrop to the bust of FDR by artist Jo Davidson, above which only sky and skyline would normally be seen.
Once past the bust, the installation forms “a pavilion-like space where people can feel the harsh and absurd reality of war,” per the artist.
The frame developed by Camber is made up of timber posts connected by brackets and steadied by straps slotted through the large granite blocks that define the “Room,” plus diagonal straps for lateral stability.
The timber frame sits on brackets that bear on the memorial's granite benches, while wooden enclosures cover the base connections and allow visitors to recline while sitting beneath the fabric enclosure.
The rear side of the blocks enclosing the bust of FDR has the Four Freedoms Speech etched into the stone, seen here in the middle of the photo.
The location of the memorial at the tip of Roosevelt Island—known as Welfare Island at the time of FDR's 1941 speech—is no accident, given how FDR influenced the formation of the nearby United Nations and the speech is literally embedded in the Charter of the United Nations.
Halfway through the two-month duration of Camouflage, its namesake material is barely holding together in parts…
…though I'm guessing Ai Weiwei would be happy with this situation, given how the ripped camouflage illustrates the effects of war, even in a place far removed from one.
