Norwegians select "Memory Wound" by artist Jonas Dahlberg. The 43-year-old artist has sliced a three-and-a-half-metre-wide slit into the Sørbråten peninsula, which faces the island of Utøya where Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 people in 2011. It marks a "symbolic wound" in the landscape. I like the memorial as a sculptural reminder. Simple metaphor of damage landscaped and damaged nation. … [Read more...]
Dallas Memorials: Kennedy and Police
Never been to Dallas, Texas. Two memorials to learn from: JFK Memorial , 1970, by Philip Johnson and the Dallas Police Memorial by Ed Baum. Both are under-successful works of architects caught in transition. Johnson has several quirks such as tiny, tiny experiments with decoration showing a crack in his modernist faith. He raises the walls to show the feet and calves of visitors inside the … [Read more...]
Funny Pavilions in Shanghai
A certain ugliness of architectural work has emerged in China. Ugliness is normally made by long-term neglect or the original laziness by the designer. But many architects of all nationalities in working in China seem to be working on a style based on a quasi-organic "flow" and plastic injection toy manufacturing. Perhaps I am just out-of-date. Glenn Weiss "Living in urban surroundings … [Read more...]
Does Parody Strengthen the Original Work: Carl Andre vs Jordan McKenzie
When the silly artist makes childish fun of a great artist, does it strengthen the memories and thoughts regarding the great artist? In summer 2013, Jordan McKenzie’s performance Carl An(t)dre introduced 20 young people dressed as ants, accompanied by a marching band, promenading through Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s historic landscape creating structures inspired by Carl Andre’s infamous brick … [Read more...]
Is Sculpture Boring? Winners of 4th Plinth
Public sculpture has been replaced with graphic design at the Fourth Plinth in the UK. Following the blue rooster, we will now have an elongated "thumbs up" and the skeleton of a horse. None of this works require traditional sculpture making skills. And the conceptual art thinking is just as minimal. Just scan a found image into the computer, make modest photoshop modifications and send to … [Read more...]
Bruce High Quality Rat at Lever House 2012
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="kZZwFmYWvCuQ05uebLC9ixSL8Zz52Jr0"] I missed the bronze rat at Lever House as part of Bruce High Quality Foundation's "Art History with Labor" exhibition in 2012. When I as working in Times Square, many building and theater owners feared the inflatable rat that would be installed when employers tried to go around the unions. According to the website. The Foundation … [Read more...]
Community Adopted: Grasshopper Bridge by Ed Carpenter
As a new series, I plan to look at Community Adopted public art. These artworks have become part of the self-identity of people living in the neighborhood, city or region. Or adopted by an non-geographic group of people with a common interest or way of life. Send me recommendations with proof of the community adoption. Completed in 1997 in Phoenix, the Grasshopper Bridge has been adopted by … [Read more...]
Straw Temple in Russia.
Alex Garkavenko in Architizer points out a few Russian sculptures by architects. Temple in Antis by Lesosplaw, Zaoksky Made as part of the GORODA architecture festival in 2012, this humble pavilion transforms a Soviet livestock farm into an active cultural space. The use of straw as a construction material is as much of an ecological move as it is a symbol of the immediate … [Read more...]
Key West Sculpture Exhibition
History of Sculpture Key West Sculpture Key West is an annual exhibition of contemporary outdoor sculpture located in Key West, Florida. The mission of Sculpture Key West is to be an important, internationally recognized platform for contemporary sculpture while educating and inspiring the community of the Florida Keys and its visitors. History: In 1995, local sculptor Jim Racchi called … [Read more...]
Very DULL – Another Watertank Project in NYC
I don't get the connection between watertanks, immigration and Woody Guthrie. Just a kitchen sink of ideas to justify the work. NEW YORK, NY.- Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Mad. Sq. Art announces a new sculptural installation for late winter 2014: This Land Is Your Land by Brooklyn-based Chilean artist Iván Navarro. The site-specific installation presents three water towers inside of … [Read more...]
Men on Horses Continue to Play a Valuable Role in Revolutions
CARACAS.- Leopoldo Lopez (C), an ardent opponent of Venezuela's socialist government facing an arrest warrant after President Nicolas Maduro ordered his arrest on charges of homicide and inciting violence, stands at the monument of Cuba's most important independence-era hero, Jose Marti, as he demonstrates in Caracas before turning himself in to authorities, on February 18, 2014. AFP PHOTO / LEO … [Read more...]
5×5 Returns to Washington, DC in September
5 Curators, 25 Artists, 8 Wards, 16 Weeks, 1 Cultural Capital Transforming the District with Public Art Congrats on the DC Commission for bringing back 5x5. $500K is an excellent local and national contribution to the temporary public art. I HAVE A BIG COMPLAINT from 2012 that is still present on the 2014 website. Why don't they have a simple online way to see pictures of the art? Great … [Read more...]