Artists Plan Their Sand Castles, Sponsorships Included

Karsten Moran for The New York Times Duke Riley with his manager, Kitty Joe Sainte-Marie, in his studio.

Updated, 6:24 p.m. | The drive-through window will be topped by a horseshoe crab, the menu board made of driftwood and the parking lot lined with seashells. That's the vision that the artist Duke Riley has for his entry into Creative Time's sand castle competition, which began on Rockaway Beach on Friday afternoon. If his design, a boxy building with a square turret, seems familiar â€" or hunger-inducing â€" that's the point.

“My sand castle will be brought to you by White Castle restaurants,” Mr. Riley said. “It will be a White Castle.”

Mr. Riley, a Brooklyn artist known for tongue-in-cheek work like staging a naval battle in a reflecting pool, was not kidding around: his entry was indeed sponsored by White Castle. The company had promised to send over uniforms for his team, as well as a supply of burgers â€" “to potentially bribe the judges,” Mr. Riley explained.

Brian Harkin for The New York Times The competition on Friday afternoon.

It's still no biennial, but in its second year, this showdown, conceived of as a lark by the public arts organization Creative Time, has stepped up its game. Last year's champions, Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw, who won for constructing a human fountain â€" they sat atop piles of sand and spurted water at each other â€" will return as judges, alongside art world impresarios like Klaus Biesenbach, director of MoMA PS 1. They'll assess the 10 artistic teams invited by Creative Time, who all seem to be taking the endeavor pretty seriously, sketching plans way in advance, constructing mock-ups in their studios and addressing heavy concepts.

Duke Riley Duke Riley's plan for his sand White Castle.

Sebastian Errazuriz, an artist and designer, was mindful of the post-9/11 dread he feels whenever he sees the shadow of a plane cross his path. “The proximity with the 12th anniversary of 9/11, the fragility of our sand constructions and the personal need to address this inherent fear” all inspired his shadow-work design, which will “hopefully serve as both a memorial and a cleansing,” he wrote in an e-mail.

In her piece, Jamie Isenstein planned to play with the structures used to present work in galleries. “This is an art crowd,” she said, “and people understand the pedestal and the cube.” After some research, she had jettisoned her original idea, to build a snowman, because it was too commonplace. “I thought it was impossible to make orbs out of sand, but with the right techniques, you can make pretty much anything,” she said. “People make snowmen out of sand on their beach vacations, take photos and then send them to people like, ‘Merry Christmas!'”

Brian Harkin for The New York Times Jamie Isenstein at work on Friday.

Still, Ms. Isenstein, a performance artist and sculptor, said she found the contest artistically fruitful. “I think a lot about ephemerality,” she said. “I do like the challenge of thinking about how to make a sculpture really fast and also I like the challenge of using a medium that I don't normally use.” There may be a sand snowman in her future, after all. “I go to the beach regularly but I never make sand castles,” she said. “But now I think I will, because it turns out to be really fun.”

High-mindedness aside, fun will definitely be a part of the competition. “We are doing a kind of ‘Spring Breakers' the movie meets Rockaway pirates mash-up,” Rachel Owens wrote, describing her idea to make witty beach-body T-shirts. The piece, she said, would be “about hybrids â€" gender, racial, mechanical, and organic, all with a redneck-Riviera wink. And a dose of Brooklyn diversity!”

And then there is Mr. Riley, who was a judge in the competition last year, so perhaps has a higher understanding of what it takes to win. His truck and studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn, were filled with pungent kelp and bags of seashells; he collected the dead horseshoe crabs himself, wading into the water in Dead Horse Bay.

“All these young people getting in the pro sand castle building game, they think it's all fast cars and endorsements, girls in bikinis,” he said. “But you really got to have the drive and the commitment to make it all the way to the top.” (O.K., he allowed, there probably will be girls in bikinis.)

He speculated about the top prize. “There's got to be some kind of parade or ring or something,” he said. “Product endorsements, Wheaties boxes.”

“This is kind of the Grand Prix of sand castle-building competitions, isn't it?” he added.

Actually, no, it's not. The winner is awarded a gold-plated shovel, a bucketful of liquor, and $500. Runners-up receive only the shovels (in silver and bronze) and the booze.

But that did not dissuade Mr. Riley. “I know what it takes to be a champion and I intend to make it there on Friday,” he bragged this week.

Then again, he said: “You never want to get too cocky in this game. There's always room for tragedy.”

Jamie Isenstein won the gold shovel with “Disappearing Sculptures,” Esperanza Mayobre won silver with “Raft de la Esperanza” and Duke Riley took bronze with “White Castle.”

The Creative Time Artist competition is free and open to the public. It opens at noon on the sand near Beach 86th Street on Rockaway Beach, Queens, with building beginning at 2 p.m. and judging at 5 p.m. An after-party follows at Rippers on the boardwalk. There is no rain date; check Creative Time's Twitter and Facebook pages for updates in case of cancellation.