Patricia Casey
Curating Public Narrative
Location 220 out of Public Art New
York is entitled Topiary: A Twenty Year
Project and it displays the work of Boston area Sculptor Mags Harries and depicts animal
sculptures made of heavy aluminum wire hanging from overhead fixtures that were
initially installed in 1993. They are located north and south entrances, i.e. the two primary entrances
of Brooklyn’s only zoo. The industrial sculptures of Prospect Park Zoo are
massive in size. Theses larger than life creatures are counteracted by topiary
and intertwining greenery that will grow over the sculptural pieces within the
following years.
I also made the point to see the piece by sculptor Leonard
Ursachi’s latest work, "Fat Boy," which was installed in front of the
park's Litchfield Villa on Prospect Park West near Fifth Street.
Interestingly enough, the artwork was carved
from Styrofoam and covered in weatherproof cement like material that proved to
be completely weatherproof. The piece, gargantuan in size, roughly nine feet tall
depicts a giant head of a cherub with wild, protruding curls. Children in particular took a liking to the jolly
expression o the figure and tried to climb on it where conversely the adults
were interested in the piece but kept their distance and seemed to find the
piece rather unsettling.
Another
narrative that resulted as an affect of theses two sculptural pieces was a
behavior of the viewers that coincides with both. Rather than marveling at the
piece or viewing it in its entirety from various angles the first thing that
the spectators did was photograph the piece before fully understanding it or
its prominence in the context of it’s surrounding. Rather than taking pictures
of the work, people deem it necessary and take pictures with the animals, icons
and sculptures to validate that they existed in this space.
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