Béatrice Coron, Set Your Future in Motion, 2022, stainless, patinated and chrome-plated steel, Cardozo High School Annex, Queens​

Set Your Future in Motion is a site-specific artwork created by Béatrice Coron for the lobby of Cardozo High School Annex, Queens. The eight steel relief sculptures are shaped like machine gears. Each gear on the main lobby wall contains silhouetted vignettes that depict students engaged in some of the wide-ranging academic programs offered at Cardozo, including math and biomedical science, performing arts, law and ethics, computer science, Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, and political science. On the adjacent wall, a single large gear centers around a heart and laurel wreath with smaller vignettes showing students enjoying the high school’s rich extra-curricular offerings.

The individual gears celebrate each student’s self-directed pursuit of their passions and talents, while the composition as a whole emphasizes the interconnected relationship of the gears. It suggests the importance of sharing across disciplines and cooperating to achieve successful outcomes for the betterment of the school community. The gears’ chrome-plated surfaces act like mirrors, inviting viewers to see themselves and their scholarly ambitions reflected in the artwork.