MetroSpective
A retrospective
celebrating ten years of Public Art Fund projects
at Brooklyn's MetroTech Center
January 29, 2003 to July 1, 2003
City Hall Park, Manhattan
9
to 5 (1996)
Walter
Martin & Paloma Muñoz
Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz's 9 to 5, a sculpture installed on two of the parks' trees, features beautiful bronze pears that appear to emerge from faucets and drop into awaiting buckets below. At once subtle and surreal, 9 to 5 seems to tap nature at its source, magically harvesting ripe fruit before it ever reaches the branch.
Monument
(2000)
Peter
Rostovsky
In Peter Rostovsky's Monument, a figure stands at the edge of a daunting precipice far above the head of the viewer, alone at the top of a dramatically jutting mountain. Ninety-nine percent mountain and one percent man, Monument appears at first glance to be a paean to rugged individualism, heroism and epiphany. But the tiny figure, dressed in a sports coat, is altogether ill-suited for this outdoorsy activity, as he peers gingerly from his perch looking out on the world around him.
Witch
Catcher (1997)
Brian Tolle
Brian Tolle's Witch Catcher depicts the architectural vestiges of a long-gone 17th-century New England home. A brick chimney, twisting 25 feet into the air, is surrounded by the perimeter of the house's foundation. Mysterious and monumental, Witch Catcher suggests the archeological layering that occurs with urban development and, perhaps, serves as a reminder of how forgetful we can be.
Balsa
Wood Airplane: The Land That Time Forgot
(2001)
Art Domantay
In
Balsa Wood AIrplane: The
Land That Time Forgot, Art Domantay has taken
the familiar toy balsa-wood airplane and augmented
it in scale from a tiny 12 inches to a giant proportion
of 15 feet in length. The original balsa-wood toy
airplane, an object that many people played with as
a child, has an iconic design that is easily recognizable.
Both the smallest child and the most sophisticated
adult can relate to this toy's simple mechanism and
its reference to the dream of flight.
Picnic
Table (1996)
Ken Landauer
Ken
Landauer's Picnic Table
puts an unusual spin on a familiar park icon. From
a distance, the sculpture appears to be like any other
picnic table, but a closer look reveals it to be a
super-sized version of the original. The table provides
a useful surface for a coffee break or lunch, but
those that take a seat may find themselves recalling
the long-forgotten childhood experience of clambering
up unwieldy objects to sit with feet dangling off
the ground.
Maquette for Public
Figures (1998,
A.P.)
Do-Ho Suh
Do-Ho
Suh, questioning the role of memorials and statues
dedicated to illustrious individuals, turns the traditional
monument upside down with his small-scale maquette
for Public Figures.
Instead of a single figure perched on a pedestal,
Suh creates a pedestal supported by myriad miniature
anonymous male and female figures, refocusing the
viewer's attention from the individual to the collective
masses. Maquette for Public
Figures will be on view inside the lobby of
City Hall.