There are at least two good things about the seasonal efflorescence of outdoor art in this city. One is that those who go looking for it may find their ways to places they’ve not been before. The other is that seekers — as well as casual passers-by — get to see art outside the hygienic shelters of museums and galleries, set loose in the world, where the relationship between the object and its site may catalyze the stretching of minds. Four notable works currently on view here and there in New York do just that.

Governors Island

The Hills, the most recent addition to the recreational offerings on Governors Island, is a fantastic roller coaster of a landscape on and around four steeply sloped prominences ranging from 25 to 70 feet tall. Designed by the architectural firm West 8, the $71 million development occupies a 10-acre site on the southern end of island, where once there was only a flat expanse of landfill. Planted with 860 new trees and 41,000 shrubs and grasses, the Hills and nearby areas are divided by serpentine paved roads designed to shed floodwaters efficiently in case of another hurricane like Sandy in 2012.

Near the top of one called Discovery Hill is a single work of fine art, a permanent sculpture called “Cabin” by the British artist Rachel Whiteread, who is internationally recognized for castings of architectural interiors like “House” (1993), a two-story building in East London since demolished, which earned her a Turner Prize in 1993.

“Cabin” resembles a backyard tool shed or a mountain way station, except that it’s made entirely of pale gray concrete and can’t be entered. In fact, it’s a cast of the inside of the original structure. What you see on its exterior is actually a reproduction of its interior walls and ceiling. Up close, you see a fossilized patchwork of corrugated metal, wood clapboards and other types of siding punctuated by blind, mullion-gridded windows.