Thursday, June 10, 2010

What's New in Madison Square Park? Oh, nothing -- but it looks like someone is going to jump off of a building!

In Antony Gormley's latest work, Event-Horizon, he has placed thirty-one life size body forms (an image of himself) in New York City's streets, sidewalks, and roof-tops surrounding the Flat Iron District and other select buildings. As you stroll through Madison Square Park, you will notice one such iron cast body standing there and then as you look up, you'll see many others on the roof-tops of some of New York's buildings -- The Credit Suisse Building to the East, the New York Life Insurance Building to the Northeast, and the Flatiron Building to the South). If you're having trouble spotting them, perhaps, this six year old's drawing will help or you can reference this map from the New York Times. :D

On Madison Square Park's website, the artist stated that "I'm thrilled to be working with New York: people and place," ... "I don't know what is going to happen, what it will look and feel like, but I want to play with the city and people's perceptions. My intention is to get the sculptures as close to the edge of the buildings as possible. The field of the installation should have no defining boundary. The gaze is the principle dynamic of the work; the idea of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, and in the process perhaps re-assessing your own position in the world. So in encountering these peripheral things, perhaps one becomes aware of one's status of embedment."

Some people have thought it looks like someone jumping off of a building; others have thought it feels like someone is staring down at you... and while others, well -- not so positive, have just thought its a stupid exhibit (especially as you see people standing to one of the sculptures, touching its nipples). Well, whatever your viewpoint, the exhibit is there until August 15, 2010.

Note:
- The sculptures can also be found on the Empire State Building and in on a building in Union Square.
- These sculptures were previously exhibited in London at the Hayward Gallery as part of the Blind Light exhibition in 2007 and were placed on bridges, rooftops and streets along the South Bank of the Thames River.

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