Saturday, February 16, 2008

Walking Figure

This whimsical pedestrian strolls down Olive Street in downtown St. Louis, right outside the doors of my office building. Walking Figure by Donald Baechler was installed with funding from the Gateway Foundation, which places public art throughout the area. For another example, see my post last May about Nijinsky Hare, an enormous balletic bunny outside the hockey arena.

Walking Figure is about three meters tall. It makes me smile every time I pass by. It is so lighthearted, so silly in a sophisticated way. Nothing heroic about it. It could be a friend of yours or mine after knocking back a couple of shots of Alice's Drink Me.

TOMORROW: How about some more good downtown sculpture?

12 comments:

Jilly said...

It makes me smile too. she has so much energy. amazing how the artist has achieved this. Love it. Such a contrast to the classic building in the background.

edwin s said...

I wonder how big your smile is when you walk past it. I'm smiling pretty wide just looking at it.

I took your suggestion and did a search on as many Gursky pictures I could find. I like the details he captures. It looks so effortless. Thanks for sending me his way.

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

I like the idea of the simple pleasure this thing give you :)

Troop 1309 said...

That is a cool sculpture.

Janet said...

Hmmmm, this is what I need to be doing.

Anonymous said...

My kind of guy.

Anonymous said...

That's really cute! It could almost have been made out of plasticine by a little kid, except 3 metres of plasticine is rather a lot!

Olivier said...

elle est superbe cette sculpture, juste une silhouette, on dirait un immense gâteau en pâte a sel.

It is superb this sculpture, just a silhouette, it looks like a giant cake in a salt dough.

Kunal Bhatia said...

lol, made me smile. i agree that the sculpture is funny in a very silly sort of way...loved it
- Mindless Mumbai
will not be visiting till april end now. there's too much college work, followed by exams. will try and keep up posting though.. have fun photo blogging, and all da best. c ya.

Stefan Jansson said...

Ha ha. My kind of art.

Kate said...

Yes, very whimsical!

Jilly said...

Thanks for the comment today on Monte Carlo. I see, looking back, I had already commented on this. I loved it's whimsy - the right word.