Friday, September 16, 2011

What do you think of the Union Square elephant?

[Photo by EVG reader Lauren]

On Tuesday, workers plopped down Miquel Barceló's Gran Elefandret. It weighs 26 tons, roughly the same size as the Whole Foods salad bar. Would the statue look better with some colorful zip ties around its trunk?

WYNC has more on it here. It's up through May, so you have time to form an opinion...or of you want to weigh in now.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

LIza Bear recently posted an interesting video interview with Miguel Barcelo about Gran Elefandret:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nothingofficial#p/u/0/wKnKQyyphLg

Alex in NYC said...

Looks like it's made out of dung.

Anonymous said...

It's rather disturbing because elephants don't actually do that. It would be like a giraffe balancing on its fuzzy antennae. Only a unicorn balancing on its horn would make "sense" (not that I'd prefer that statue, given that unicorns are the fro-yo of the animal kingdom).

Elephants need to have their trunks up to be lucky. I'm afraid I don't really like it.

glamma said...

i take this as commentary on this circus that is to come when cooper union has their way with the redesign of astor place.

Dr Gecko said...

Actually, elephants *do* do that when they really, really, really have to stifle a sneeze, like if they're in a movie and don't want to disturb anyone. This rarely happens because movies are usually too expensive for them, but believe me, I know what that feels like.

EV Grieve said...

Q: Why are elephants so wrinkled?
A: Have you ever tried to iron one?

Thank you very much! I'll be here ALL weekend!

@glamma

Yes

Anonymous said...

It's sooooooo artistic! Yay.

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

Yes, it looks like dung, but I kind of like it.There are some good and bad things about it's location.

Good angles: Crossing the street and viewing it looking uptown with the trees behind it (while trying to avoid the monstrosity in the background at 1 Union Square South), looking west with the park as background, looking downtown-ish.

Bad angles: From a lot of angles looking east it gets lost, and nothing on earth can ever look good with Zekendorf Towers as backdrop, as this photo demonstrates.

Shannon said...

I think it's great! But I liked the zip ties too ;)

Lux Living said...

I recently saw this elephant doing his bit at the new Phoenix! I was sitting on a hay bale in the front row, sipping my chamomile tea - house blend - when he sucked up all my chex mix!

Kidding! :)

Marty Wombacher said...

It looks like it's missing half of its limbs. Plus I'd be afraid to stand near it for fear it would fall over. Maybe they should stick it in T.G.I. Fridays.

Tom said...

It needs a sweater.

Anonymous said...

I like this elephant. He's cute. Or she's cute. I can't tell...Can someone take a picture from the other side?

Anonymous said...

IT LOOKS LIKE DOO DOO.

Morgan Tsvangirai said...

Reminds me of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJv2Mugm2RI which is awesome.

Anonymous said...

I welcome anything to distract me from all you crabby critical NYers! I love the elephant and when I caught my first fleeting glimpse of it as I descended into the subway it made me chuckle.

Michael C said...

Kitsch in its grandest form. Bad taste aside, does anybody worry that this tall piece of dung may one day suddenly tip over during an earthquake or when hit by an errant trunk?