Walking through Baltimore just got a little more interesting.
The Baltimore Sculpture Project has placed over 30 sculptures throughout the city and left them to the mercy of Mother Nature, tourists and city residents.
Exhibiting sculptor, David Page expects passerbys to touch or strike his work, Surrogate, which resembles a tackling dummy.
“It might be most rewarding for those who stereotypically wouldn?t go to a gallery,” said Page who came to Baltimore from South Africa in 1994.
Page crafted Surrogate ? a metaphor for how we see ourselves as powerful or powerless ? after pondering targets, how we protect ourselves and how we project power, he said.
“I thought that in someways [tackling dummies] are a little ridiculous. They might help with some skills, but they present this idealized attitude to us. That we can go at them with all force and sustain very little injury. They don’t run at us or anything a real opponent would do.”
Hampden artist Michael Benevento expects viewers to interact with his sculpture, Car Pileup, by tagging it, postering it or relaxing on the multimedia work.
Benevento used city benches, pressure treated lumber and paint to depict a car wreck that doubles as a reclining bench.
A trip to Mexico City inspired Benevento, he said. “They had reclining benches there. It?s so radical to encourage people to sleep in the park; we?d never have that here so I took the opportunity to create it.”
The Baltimore Office of Promotions and the Arts organized the Sculpture Project, a juried exhibition, in conjunction with Artscape.
Sculpture Project sites include McKeldin Square, Mount Royal Avenue, the Baltimore Convention Center, Station North Arts and Entertainment District, Preston Gardens and forthcoming, the Baltimore Museum of Art.
A diverse panel of jurors from the BMA, Maryland Institute College of Art and the University of Maryland selected Page and other exhibiting artists from about 80 hopefuls, said Kim Domanski, Public Art Coordinator for BOPA.
“[The exhibit] is a form of civic pride and can spark debates,” she said. “Most time people feel really strongly, really like a piece or don?t. The debate that results is what people usually find very enriching.”
IF YOU GO
Baltimore Sculpture Project
» Where: Sites throughout Baltimore, including Mount Royal Avenue and the Convention Center
» When: Through April 2008
» Information: artscape.org
