Or Zenit in the original Italian. Mimmo Paladino's work is placed on a wooded rise in Citygarden, a very tall stylized horse with a solid shape on its back called a stellated dodecahedron, a star-shaped form with twelve faces, one point sharply in the animal's back. I think it's spooky.
We got a lot of snow over the weekend by our standards, maybe 9 inches / 23 cm. The temperature forecast for Sunday night is -5 F / -20.5 C, frigid to us. Under the circumstances, I thought I'd bring back a chilly picture of Citygarden's other Pinocchio statue (we have two!), Jim Dine's Big White Gloves, Four Big Wheels. I'm not so welcoming of the conditions.
All of America and some of the rest of the world knows that the U.S. is having one heck of a winter storm this weekend, affecting more than half the population. As I write this Saturday night, St. Louis has had steady, fairy dust soft snow since this morning that should continue until Sunday evening. Nothing awful, and no ice like many neighboring states. It got me looking in the archives, though, where I found this photo of Tom Otterness' work Kindly Geppetto. That's a big hammer in the puppeteer's left hand. Doesn't look too kindly to me.
So said John Lennon. As we continue with St. Louis sculpture, who better to personify love than Eros, Greek god of the same? Igor Mitoraj's Eros Bendato
(Eros Bound) is probably the most popular sculpture in Citygarden. The
plinth is a gently sloping circle with water trickling down the surface. The head is hollow - you can climb inside through the neck and kids can peek
out through the eyes. It looks like something natural - sort of.
But then you
have to try to understand it. Was Eros bandaged or were his eyes and
mouth deliberately covered at another time? Is it about repression of
vision and speech, injury or perhaps death of love? And what's with that
notch in the neck? And why are the eyes empty? (Greek sculpture used
plain spheres for eyes. The Romans introduced carved irises and pupils.
This is neither.)
I'm just askin'.
The series of four busts of St. Louis writers I just finished was unusual. It occurred to me that a survey of local public sculpture might be worthwhile. St. Louis has a lot of it, some very good, some simply dreadful. I'll start looking around. For starters, Erwin Wurm's Big Suit in Citygarden. However, there is an unusual event to shoot Thursday.
It’s unusual in recent years for us to get snow this early, but when it happens I think I should do something with it. Igor Mitoraj’s Eros Bendato in Citygarden.
Citygarden, our downtown sculpture park, usually adds pumpkins to the art objects at this time of year. I swung by yesterday and didn’t find anything so I pulled this out of the archives. Fun with f stops.
Yoshitomo Nara”s White Ghost, https://citygardenstl.org/art/yoshitomo-nara/, needs a background note, which I think is a problem with some contemporary art. Your experience when confronting the piece is essential, of course, but there may be layers of meaning that require more information. Nara’s work often represents children or dogs, or, as here, something of a blend. The note on the Citygarden website linked above, if it is accurate, expects too much from the viewer.
Hope to get much more color and excitement in the next few days. This weekend is the Great Forest Park Balloon Race, https://greatforestparkballoonrace.com/. Tonight is the balloon glow. At dusk, the balloons stay tethered but periodically blast up with flame. creating an otherworldly experience. It’s going to be packed but my granddaughter and I will give it a shot.
Just the thing for a St. Louis man to wear to a late summer social event. But it makes me think of the words of a certain native St. Louis writer: We are the hollow men/ We are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw.
Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm’s Big Suit, https://citygardenstl.org/art/erwin-wurm/#, asks a lot of questions. I like art that pokes. Many people walk past something like this and think it looks weird/cool/stupid/baffling, then keep on movng. I’d rather stop and wonder about what’s going on.
These images seem like they come from another time, which I guess is the point. Still in Citygarden, Jim Dine’s Big White Gloves shows Pinocchio exultant, although I’m not sure why. He seems to be some way from his goal of becoming a real boy.
There was an article in the local newspaper yesterday about prominent public sculpture in our town. I know some but not all. Lots of ideas.
An old guy walking around with a big camera can get people’s attention. Passers-by sometimes engage me. The most common question is “get any good ones today?” Most common answer, said in a pleasant tone: "Ï’ll know when I download them.” Rarer but much more fun question is “hey, mister, wanna take our picture?” The answer is always yes. I offer to send them a copy and give them my card. Hardly anyone contacts me.
I met these young people in Citygarden, our wonderful downtown sculpture park. The picture was originally in color, of course, but the light was hazy-bright-harsh and my Photoshop skills were not up to fixing it. Still, you can often get a good monochrome conversion.
That’s the name (not including the question mark) of one of the new sculptures in Citygarden. It was made by the Swiss sculptor Ugo Rondinone. It strikes me as strange and disconcerting, a happy child’s face emerging from a monster’s mouth. You may see something different.
Downtown St. Louis' Citygarden, https://citygardenstl.org/, has been seen often in these pages. It is two square blocks of sculpture and plantings that reflect the ecosystems of the region. Although it opened in 2009, the city street between the two blocks remained, although it was blocked to traffic. With additional funding, the park space is now continuous and new artwork has been added.
This is one of the new additions, White Ghost, by Yoshitomo Nara. It has an anime feeling in the style of Spirited Away, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/.
There were lots of other children playing in Citygarden's splash fountains while Ellie was there. The water jets go some distance back from the focal distance of this photo. They dance, they are choreographed, their rise and fall follow unpredictable patterns. Mrs. C and I wondered how someone gets the job of water choreographer or fluid engineer. If you have ever been to Las Vegas and seen the fountains in front of The Bellagio, you know what I mean.
Travel over for a while, we're back to local themes. Citygarden, our two-block downtown sculpture park, had a "reopening" on Saturday, featuring new sculptures and street arrangements. There are fountains and splash pools for kids, and Ellie couldn't get enough. With our Memorial Day weekend, summer season is officially here.
Those of us who shoot on the street have had it happen: you get everything framed, set your exposure and someone jumps into the photo, waving or making a face. Usually it is a minor annoyance from juvenile behavior. Once in a while, though, you may like what turns out. I was about to take a dull picture in Citygarden when this young man rode through. He made the snap a keeper.
I'm not usually big on photographing other people's artwork, but then, say, how many times have I taken pictures of the Winged Victory of Samothrace at the Louvre? Or, for that matter, our Arch? There are lots of different ways to see and interpret. This is a detail of Igor Mitoraj's Eros Bendato, or Eros Bound, in Citygarden. This section is taller than I am, hollow and open at the base of the neck. Kids crawl around inside.
More squiggles: Ju Ming's Tai Chi Singlewhip in Citygarden. It's easier to photograph the artwork in winter. Everything isn't obstructed by leaves but you can still get some nice frames among the plantings.
