Northward facing, in the immense shadows of the Flatiron Building and the (however urban-sparse) trees of Madison Square Park, are a flock of new sculptural residents.
In conjunction with Dominque Lévy Gallery and the New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program, Peter Regli’s SNOW MONSTERS have rooted their melting, snow-of-marble bases into the Flatiron Plaza community space.
Part of Regli’s series Reality Hacking, an ongoing installation project in which his mainly sculptural, anodyne artworks interrupt public spaces, the “monsters” of marble are plays on winter holiday-themed kitsch. It’s a reality, so to speak, of a snowman that we never acknowledge – the snow creature in decline, melting away, inanimate self-destructing, but somehow beautiful in its innate symbolism of the elements’ natural, cyclical behaviour.
The installation is Regli’s first large-scale sculptural intervention in New York City. SNOW MONSTERS will be on view in the Flatiron District through March 13, 2015 – just in time for spring and the rejuvenating warmth it brings with it to the city.
Image courtesy of the artist and Dominique Lévy Gallery, New York