Giant Bird Takes Over NYC

Photo: Courtesy of Will Ryman and the Paul Kasmin Gallery.

Seeing birds around New York鈥檚 City Madison Square Park isn鈥檛 a rare occurrence. What is strange is to spot a . Walk by the park between now and April 21st, however, and that鈥檚 precisely what you鈥檒l see.

The sculpture, created by artist and made from nails鈥攂oth store-bought and those fabricated from carbon steel鈥攕its at the park鈥檚 southwest corner. In its mouth dangles a rose. Despite the assumed connections to flora and fauna a bird and a flower might conjure, the piece isn鈥檛 about nature to Ryman. It鈥檚 about transforming something cold and hard into something organic and soft.

鈥淲hat I like most about this piece is the abstractions that the nails form within the sculpture,鈥� says Ryman, a native New Yorker. 鈥淲hen you stand behind the sculpture and you鈥檙e looking at its back, you don鈥檛 see a bird but you see abstractions. When you step back and walk around, those abstractions become an image.鈥�

The sculpture is truly something to behold. The gargantuan nails cascade down its back, causing the metal to somehow mimic a feather鈥檚 flow. Even the stilt-like legs change this everyday, oft-ignored creature into something you can鈥檛 help but gawk at. (Much, we imagine, like the sculpture鈥檚 journey on a flatbed truck from the private owner鈥檚 home to the park.)

Wyman recently finished a show at Manhattan鈥檚 Paul Kasmin gallery and now plans to take a break to let some new ideas germinate. In the mean time, head over to Madison Square Park to stare at this awesome, raven-like sculpture!

Photo: Courtesy of Will Ryman and the Paul Kasmin Gallery.