Day 4443: Enormous Pigeon, and Remembering the Shoes.

        

"Legalities": junk collage.

  

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2GN2S

 Enormous Pigeon Perches Atop ...

“Dinosaur.” All photos by Timothy Schneck, courtesy of the High Line,

The latest sculpture to grace New York City’s High Line is a monumental tribute to an unlikely creature. Perched above 10th Avenue, a hyper-realistic pigeon stops to rest in the outdoor pavilion. The work of artist Iván Argote, the hand-painted, aluminum bird is titled “Dinosaur” and looms 21 feet in the air, rivaling the proportions of some of its ancestors.

Argote is known for questioning the role of monuments and statues, particularly as they relate to colonial histories and power imbalances. For this work, he upends the human-animal relationship and notions of migration and value as the common street bird is vaulted into a glorified figure, peering down on pedestrians and drivers. The artist's statement: 

The name “Dinosaur” makes reference to the sculpture’s scale and to the pigeon’s ancestors who millions of years ago dominated the globe, as we humans do today… the name also serves as a reference to the dinosaur’s extinction. Like them, one day we won’t be around anymore, but perhaps a remnant of humanity will live on—as pigeons do—in the dark corners and gaps of future worlds.

Despite their ubiquity throughout North American cities, pigeons aren’t native to the continent. The birds were initially brought from Europe as a barnyard animal and food source, but as they escaped into the wild, they grew into the scavenging flocks they are today. No longer domesticated and not quite wild, pigeons occupy a unique position.

Argote’s work is a cheeky nod to the birds and suggests they’re more deserving of appreciation than some of the figures we’ve collectively honored in the past. Standing tall and confident atop a concrete plinth, the sculpture also serves as a reminder that “everyone is an immigrant,” a statement says. “Even the pigeon, a New York fixture, initially migrated here and made the city their home, like millions of other ‘native’ New Yorkers.”

“Dinosaur” will be on view through spring. Find more from Argote on Instagram.

From yesterday's blog, there were comments, and to one I replied ...

"My favorite were the shoes, because I saw them when I was in Budapest. It was the night we arrived in Hungary, having flown from Detroit then Amsterdam (the USA Jr. Karate team and coaches). And, because we would have no sightseeing time the next few days, we were told we would do some that night. You can imagine how thrilled teenagers were to go look at buildings etc. When we went to the Danube, we saw the shoes, and it was explained to us that during WW II the Jews were made to take off their shoes, before they were shot. It was a sobering sight for all of us as we looked at the shoes by the Danube in the moonlight. I will never forget it."

 

  

 

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