Walking in the Park with a Hollow Leg

I was in New York this past weekend and desperately wanted to see Miranda July’s “Eleven Heavy Things” which has been installed in Union Square Park. So, on Saturday morning, after a long night of red wine, good food, wonderful friends, laughing, laughing, laughing some more, disco dancing, half of a roast beef sandwich at some diner in Chelsea and a “nap” in the back of a taxi, I peeled my wide-eyed and legless body from my friend’s air mattress and made my way downtown.

July’s “Eleven Heavy Things” was originally created for the Venice Biennale in 2009 and is comprised of eleven cast fiber-glass, steel-lined sculptures designed to serve as picture props: pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes for body parts, and free-standing abstract headdresses.

Sponsored by Deitch Projects, the Union Square Partnership and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, artist, author and filmmaker July says, “Though the work begins as sculpture, it becomes a performance;” a far cry from that gargantuan vandalized statue of that American revolutionary (what’s his name again?) that sits in the park across from your office huh?

So many of us are guilty of failing to appreciate and notice pieces of public art. The countless bronze statutes that dot our squares and the attempts made by cities to integrate large scale works on our streets often become just blips on the landscape of our commutes and/or meeting points for the derelicts that exist in my nightmares. But July’s approach encourages us to interact with the work that truly exists between sculpture and performance art. It also serves as a reminder to take a second glance at the pieces we live with everyday.

Below are some more photos from the day. I’ve looked better, that is FO SHO.

Send photos of the public art you encounter this week to: ClarkCrowley@gmail.com

Miranda July’s "Eleven Heavy Things" is on view in the center lawn of New York City’s Union Square Park until October 30, 2010. For more information on the installation and to read the artist's bio, go here.

She really is.

It sure isn't and it sure won't be.

It's what I always look like. That's why I'm so good at it!

Sober and slender and sincere.

So I asked this man to pose with me. He had to think long and hard. I shook his hand and introduced myself. His name was Andrew. We hugged. We did not touch pelvises which I HATE. And then he quickly walked away. Just like the piece instructed him to do.

"Her career as an example of perseverance in the face of neglect"

Sculptor Louise Bourgeois died yesterday in New York. She was 98. You can read Holland Cotter's obituary for The New York Times here.