Saturday, June 14, 2014

Cat, Bird & Worm

Cat, Bird & Worm, The Real World by Tom Otterness, Battery Park City, New York

Detail of “The Real World” by Tom Otterness, 1992
Nelson Rockefeller State Park
Battery Park City
New York, September 2007

“Otterness demonstrates kinship with viewers of all stripes by using popular forms of address to express distance from commonly recognized modes of authority (including Modernist art conventions), acknowledging that in ‘the real world’ artist and audience inhabit the same unstable environment. However, the nature of his sculpture—the sheer expense of its construction, the maze of official channels that must be negotiated to bring it to fruition as a public work—requires self-effacement before the powers that be.” (Tom Otterness: Public Art and the Civic Ideal in the Postmodern Age, Sculpture Magazine Archives)

3 comments:

Lowell said...

A great presentation of what the "real" world is like...the cat is after the bird and the bird if after the worm. One must always be prepared to protect oneself from predators!

Lowell said...

Hi VP: Re your comment on Ocala - 5:30 is the perfect time. The first time we were there it was early evening, nice and warm but not hot. We had a table on the river and a great waitress. We ate watching kayakers glide by. Fun time.

cieldequimper said...

So who's after the cat? ;-)