Super-colorful yarn art display in Asbury Park this summer

There's a new art installation at the Asbury Park Boardwalk as part of the Wooden Walls Project.

Artist Eric Rieger (also known as "HoTTea") returns to Asbury Park this summer with a new installation located at the Casino Building on the south end of the Boardwalk.

Visitors can check out his multi-colored yarn sculpture called "Aaron" that moves and flows with the wind inside the Casino breezeway on the Boardwalk.

"This installation represents a year of isolation and self-reflection that brought about healing and a renewed sense of purpose with someone that has changed my life forever," HoTTea said in a written statement.

"Aaron" is about the unprecedented events of 2020 and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other visuals include "Fluorescent Pink Squares Spaced Six Feet Apart." This represents COVID's social distancing as well as people coming together again near the end of the pandemic. At the top of the installation, the pink squares remain apart but as the threads reach the bottom, the will allows them to touch.

It's the same with the pandemic, explained HoTTea. It required us to be isolated and 6 feet apart from each other in public. But now with the pandemic winding down, people are starting to find their way back into each other's lives again.

Another visual is the "Creative Use of Color and Movement." These colors and individual pieces of yarn sway in the breeze and interact.

A third is "Three-Dimensional Planes of Color." Created entirely with yarn, this string art is meant to evoke emotion and tug at the "heartstrings" of those who come to enjoy it.

The Wooden Walls Project arts initiative is a generous donation from Asbury Park philanthropists Wendi Glassman and Paul Weinstein, as well as the support of the Asbury Park Boardwalk and housing sponsors, the Berkeley Carteret Hotel.