There is always something special about seeing site-specific artwork in intimate settings, outside of the white-cube gallery space. There is something really special about the amazing sculpture and installation in the rooms and halls of the abandoned old homes on Governors Island off the bottom tip of Manhattan.

The show “The Sixth Borough” is produced by No Longer Empty, an arts group which orchestrates exhibitions in vacated properties throughout New York City, and is co-curated by former Miamian Julian Navarro (most recently associate curator at the Art Gallery System of Miami Dade College, and associate director at Bernice Steinbaum). Along with with installations from the likes of Finnish Kaarina Kaikkonen (whose giant sculptures made from shoes, toilet paper, and clothes have graced Art Basel Miami Beach’s galleries over the years), South Florida is represented in this show with stunning pieces from Teresa Diehl and Wendy Wischer.

But back to the site itself first. A five minute free ferry ride from the Staten Island pier downtown, Governors Island used to be a closed community housing the U.S. Coast Guard, but has been vacant since 1996. Grand old brick homes still stand surrounded by trees and flowers, and the entire island is now a park of sorts, although there have been attempts to turn it into an arts colony. At the moment, it is a bit of a lost island. In the meantime, bands play in the open outdoor spaces, and this summer, “The Sixth Borough” takes over a few of the enclosed ones.

The artworks were commissioned to reflect this “search” for home and identity, and to reference what that can mean, including bringing up old memories and emotions and a sense of dislocation.

Projected light bounces off of Wischer’s glass tile pieces, covering the rooms and stairway of one of these brick houses with sprinkles and rays of light. When the closet door is open in an upstairs room, the light even finds its way into every corner here too. Both the sculptures themselves and the dancing refractions are beautiful and mesmerizing, but the overall emotive reaction to the installation is what lingers long after. The rooms come alive with the light sprays, yet also suggest of something that once was — like a memory. In any case, the rooms are anything but empty.

Teresa Diehl’s is similarly engulfing, and also employs projected light, this time on intricately woven fishing wire set up like screens. When you move around the space, shadows and light and images play with each other in a dreamlike sequence. It’s as much about feeling as it is about objective observation, and it is magical.

Another highlight in the exhibition also stems from projections, this time on tables, of a theoretical chess game being played between two masters who lost their “place” in life, Bobby Fischer and Marcel Duchamp, by Trong Gia Nguyen.

As the curators intended, the location plays a crucial role in the experience of “The Sixth Borough.” On this small, quiet island spitting distance from downtown Manhattan, some special private worlds await.

“The Sixth Borough” by No Longer Empty, featuring site-specific installations by 19 artists; in three homes on Colonel’s Row, Governors Island, New York City; Fridays through Sundays, through Oct. 10; free ferries from Battery Maritime Bldg., 10 South Street, Manhattan; Battery Maritime Building (10 South Street, Manhattan); [email protected]