New York is of course famous for the many large scale sculpture and monuments erected either at the plaza in front of the tall skyscrapers or embedded in the parks. Similar to the usual European monuments to heroes, the gilded statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman presides over the Grand Army Plaza, a very apt placement as a lead-on to the fabulous 5th Avenue row of high fashion Guccis and LVs.
South-west across the plaza I discovered a Joan Miro installation called Moonbird at the Solow Building. I've seen a number of Miro abstract paintings in the museums. This is the first big-scale Miro work I've seen. The New York Times described the bird as "a squat but assertive creature of black bronze, whose cocked head, ending in the top in a phallic dunce cap and equipped with a jutting chin, knobbly eyes and a cone for a nose, set directly on three bulbous, horned legs."
Another unexpected discovery is a statue of Gandhi at the Union Square Park. Set amidst green plants and shrubs, someone has placed fresh chrysanthemums in his arms. On closer look, the inscription says that the sculpture is a gift to the people of New York from the Gandhi International Memorial Foundation. I wonder if the foundation has also placed similar statues in other countries.
As I sat in the park bench at Union Square, my eyes rested on a large wall monument above the Virgin Megastore. The giant Metronome, designed by a husband-and-wife team, was installed in 1999 at a cost of $3million. It is one of the largest private commissions of public art in New York. Most New Yorkers seem to think of it as hideous and monstrous, but I think it's quite cool to have a flat wall art sculpture. According to the artists, the Metronome is an "ode to the impossibility of time". What I don't like is the steam coming out from the hole in the centre. The hole is called "infinity" and the steam is emitted as a symbol of the city's internal energy. The symbolism is too literal for my liking.
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