This July 4th, Art in Liberty State Park Will Be Invisible — Until You Look Through Your Phone

Picture this: You’re walking through Liberty State Park on the Fourth of July. The sky is blue, the Statue of Liberty is gleaming across the water. You pull out your phone to snap a photo of your kid chasing a balloon — and suddenly, a glowing digital sculpture appears on your screen, floating right there in the grass. It’s not real. But it’s real enough to make you stop and stare.

That’s the idea behind a new art show opening in the park this Independence Day. Jersey City artist Trish Gianakis is launching an augmented reality exhibition called Liberty Layers. You won’t see it with your bare eyes. You’ll need a smartphone or tablet, plus a free app, to unlock the art hidden all around you.

Augmented reality — or AR — blends digital images with the real world. Think Pokémon Go, but instead of catching creatures, you’re walking through a gallery that exists only in code. Gianakis has placed several virtual sculptures around the park, each one tied to a specific location. Visitors can download the app, open it on their phone, and watch as the park fills with unexpected shapes and colors.

How we got here

Gianakis has been working with AR for years, but this is her first public installation in Jersey City. She’s known around town for blending technology with nature — her past projects include digital murals that respond to wind, and installations that change based on the time of day. For Liberty Layers, she wanted to create something that feels both playful and thoughtful. Something that asks you to look at a familiar place in a new way.

The timing matters, too. July 4th is a day when many of us gather in parks to celebrate. But the holiday can also feel crowded with predictable imagery — flags, fireworks, barbecues. Gianakis wanted to offer something quieter. Something that invites you to slow down and notice the landscape itself, not just the festivities.

What it means for Hudson County

For Jersey City residents, this is a chance to experience public art without the usual barriers. There’s no ticket to buy, no gallery to enter. You just need a smartphone — something most of us carry everywhere anyway. The show is free and open to anyone who visits the park between July 4th and July 10th.

It also feels like a hint of where public art might be headed. As technology gets more affordable and accessible, more local artists are experimenting with digital tools. Gianakis’s project shows that you don’t need a huge budget or a physical space to create something memorable. You just need an idea, a phone, and a willingness to let people discover it on their own terms.

What people are saying

Gianakis described the project as a way to “layer a new kind of wonder onto a place that already holds so much meaning.” She told the Jersey City Times that she hopes visitors will “look up from their phones long enough to see the park differently — and then look back down and see something unexpected.”

No official statements from the city yet, but the park is public land, and the installation is designed to be low-impact — no cables, no scaffolds, no construction. Just software.

What comes next

If you’re in Liberty State Park between July 4th and July 10th, look for signs near the entrance and the waterfront promenade pointing you to the app download. You can also find instructions on Gianakis’s website. The artist hopes to bring similar installations to other parks around Hudson County later this summer.

For now, just take your phone, wander a little, and see what appears. It might be the most surprising thing you find in the park all day — and it was there the whole time.