What is The High Line Zoo? A Project by Betten, Bae and Braunstein

Wandering by the assortment of what seem to be poster board cutouts of scribbly animals around 27th street on The High Line park always draws my attention.  The mural behind the animals was created by artist Jordan Betten and has been there for a bit longer than the cutouts, but what the heck are the animals and where did they come from?  Going to the website address written just under the mural takes you to Betten's own site, a shameless self-promotion, but in truth The High Line Zoo is a project by artists Sun Bae, Jordan Betten and Stuart Braunstein (nice alliteration action there).

The 'zoo' which includes cutout sculptures of monkeys, a giraffe, an elephant, a gorilla, an owl and a bear, was put up on April 19th and will play host to a series of musical and video performances on the third Thursday of the coming months.  Between the performances, the space is exactly what it appears to be, cutouts of animals in hanging out on a roof and a balcony in an urban zoo.