Hangin' with Chris

Public art is great.  There I said it.  PUBLIC ART IS GREAT.

It can be random or deliberate.  I could like it or I might not get it.  But it's all great.

Mainly because EVERYBODY can enjoy public art.  Even if you don't like something you should give it a chance, because for  that moment you are thinking about weather or not you like it.  That is good.

could be me.

Anyway, Statues of famous people are public art.  In the middle of Columbus Circle in Manhattan is (duh) a statue of Christopher Columbus.  But he is on top of a giant pedestal, so nobody gets to see him.  But not now.  Tatzu Nishi built a living room around the statue.  Yep, 40 feet in the air there is a nice room so you can sit with Christopher Columbus.

Before I got to experience the official public art af Tatzu Nishi I had to pick up a free ticket in the Time Warner Building.  The last time I was in a building on that site it was the New York Coliseum and I was picking up my stuff for a NYC Marathon in the early '90s.  Now the Time Warner Center is home to the Asics flagship store.  So inside pubic art is commingled with ads.






The (West) view of the Time Warner Center from the exhibit is cool too.

The view East, In just under three weeks 50,000 marathon runners will fill 59th Street and make a hard right into Central Park.

and another view (North)

and here is the South View

Yea, it is a living room with a 14 foot tall statue of Christopher Columbus in it.


Kinda cool.  We were told it was OK to read the newspapers (current) and sit on the sofas.


I was really like being in someones's living room.











I especially liked the wallpaper

Here is a close up of Christopher's face.  It was carved by Gaetano Russo.



Hey wait!   But who is that guy?.

 I see another statue of Chris all the time.













Emma Stebbins sculpted this.


Is that the same dude?


But thyt might not have anything to do with what he looked like.

Ya see, nobody who actually met Mr Columbus actually recorded what he looked like.  The guy was pretty busy being an explorer, I can understand why he did not have time to sit for a portrait.

So if you do a Google Image Search for Christopher Columbus you get all these different faces.

There is even a website just for different Columbus Monuments.