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Don't Worry, That Plane In Central Park Is Only Art
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 23, 2012
Modified Jun 23, 2012
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 23, 2012
Modified Jun 23, 2012
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It may look like the Lost crew got marooned on the Island of Manhattan, but we promise this is just an art installation. This summer's Central Park public art offering is Paola Rivi's How I Roll, and it's comprised of a 360 degree-rotating, six-seat Piper Seneca plane perched above the sidewalk at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza at East 60th St and Fifth Avenue.
Italian-born Pivi, who is currently based in Alaska, created the plane as part of a sculpture series featuring large machines that have been taken out of their usual context, like an upside-down helicopter and an overturned tractor-trailer. "How I Roll reminds me of a famous anecdote about the birth of modernism," Public Art Fund Director and Chief Curator Nicholas Baume said in a press release. "Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, and Fernand Léger are said to have visited the 1912 Paris Air Show together. Upon observing a propeller, Brancusi exclaimed, ‘Now that is what I call sculpture!'"
The sculpture is on view through August 26, well before the migrating geese can get a crack at its engine.
Tagged
central park
nicholas baume
paola rivi
planes trains and automobiles
public art fund
Rebecca Fishbein
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