Art Art &Photos 15 Apr 2007 07:47 am
Public Sculpture That Looks Like Trees
- Walking through Madison Square Park this past Monday I noticed what looked like hundreds of branches of trees layed out on the central lawn of the park. It took no time to realize that a public sculpture was about to go up. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera or I could have done a before and after photo.
Well it’s taken a week, and the sculpture is still under construction. I brought my camera back that evening, and all week as I passed through the park. I wasn’t able to do a before shot, but I did a just-started-building shot and others to follow. They’re to the point where the last straw . . . er, branch has been added to the whole.
So here are some pictures, if you’re interested. We start with the evening of the first day.
1 
2
(Click on any image to enlarge.)
3 
4
You can see the artist’s model on the table in the foreground of pictures #3 – #5 and see how they planned it.
You can see that parts are still left on the ground at this point. The sculpture is going to develop, obvously, into two trees whose branches intertwine with each other.
Only the highly polished silver of the steel will separate the sculpture from the real trees in the park.
Now we move to the second day I returned with my camera.
We can see that the elements on the ground are fewer, and more of the branches have gone up. The crane is lifting some guys to do the construction after another crane has been used to lift the heavy parts.
I pass through the park at roughly 6:30am daily on my way to the studio. The workers are assembling at that point in the day. It started with about 6-8 people on the first couple of days. It slowly dwindled down to a couple by the end of the week. I also return home at 6:30pm, daily, and there are usually only 2-3 people still there working.
There’s a short brochure available at the moment, but it doesn’t really mention the name of the artist nor even the name of the piece. Perhaps this will go up after the silver trees are finally set up.
Cranes lift, and workers work. The artist (or maybe it’s a rep) stands watching the building of the structure as it enters its final day.
Already we can see that the piece is blending into its surroundings. The silver tree isn’t too different, visually, from the others. It probably weighs hundreds of thousands of pounds more, but it’s reflecting a lot of the colors of the sky and its surroundings.
There’s plenty of public art in New York City. Everywhere you go you see odd structures that shape the city. A giant bronze rabbit has been added to Union Square Park. (I first noticed it on the night before Easter Sunday.) There’s a temporary display of very large sculptures by Manolo Valdés in Bryant Park. There’s a giant Picasso sculpture in a housing court three blocks away from my studio. It’s everywhere, and we absorb it into our lives and walk past it daily.
This is the final construction of the trees. I took the picture yesterday late in the day. In a few days, after they’ve cleared all the trucks and debris and have reconstructed the grounds, I’ll take another shot. This is it for now.
Trees in a barrrel outside a local cafe.
They’re not steel, but I like the just the same.
on 15 Apr 2007 at 11:03 pm 1.Mac said …
Hey Michael, Thanks for posting these pics, awesome, I’ll have to check it out. I must say, it seems like a really cool sculpture, or at least idea. Those trees in the barrel are also pretty unique looking, nice shots.
-Mac
on 18 Apr 2007 at 10:41 am 2.Bridget said …
It’s great taking these city photo walks with you!
on 18 Apr 2007 at 1:11 pm 3.Michael said …
The park artscape keeps growing. I’ll have more pics of it on Sunday.
on 05 May 2008 at 4:09 pm 4.linda oliver said …
Who is the tree artist and how can I contact that person? I can not read the text on this page.