Discovering Columbus
Yesterday, I finally had a little extra time to go see Discovering Columbus at Columbus Circle. It was the final day to experience it -- there's nothing like waiting until the last minute. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, the artist Tatzu Nishi created a living room atop a scaffold for the statue of Christopher Columbus. Nishi is known for this sort of thing, having created domestic environments around public monuments over the years. To get up to the living room, you have to walk up about six flights of stairs. A couple of things were surprising to me. First of all, it's the ultimate in NYC real estate fantasy. Columbus has the best apartment in all of NYC, even if it's temporary. Location, location, location...so the saying goes, and there is none better than this. Second, having driven past this statue nearly every day in the entire twenty-plus years I've lived in NYC, I never noticed that Columbus is facing Southwest. The glorious panorama of Central Park is behind him. Though the apartment is flooded with sunlight, he is missing out on the park view! Perhaps years ago, when the statue was installed, when the view to the south was less obstructed, Columbus could have seen Lady Liberty from his vantage point. Certainly, before the Time Warner building was constructed and the old colosseum stood in the same location, the scale of the buildings was lower, so maybe the artist Gaetano Russo who created the monument thought it would be symbolic to have Columbus facing the Hudson river in the direction of Ellis Island - the entry point to the new world for so many immigrants to our country. Whatever the case may be, it is something to think about.
In this exhibition, photography was "highly encouraged," to quote the security guard...so here are a few of the images I snapped.
Columbus' views to the north...
looking east down 59th Street
walking into the living room...
this is the actual base of the statue that sits 70 feet above Columbus Circle. Here it appears to be sitting on top of the coffee table.
since we were instructed by the guard not to remove any books or newspapers from the setting, I'm assuming the newspapers on the table were placed there by the artist...not sure about the bubble gum wrappers.
the artist wanted to living room to reflect classic American tastes and sensibilities. Hence the kitchy wallpaper featuring iconic Americana...Elvis, Mickey Mouse, McDonalds, Coke, cowboys & indians, skyscrapers, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, hotdogs and more...
The big TV in Columbus' living room is set to CNN...an ode to America's obsession with the flatscreen and the 24-hour news cycle? I was happy to see that Columbus turned his back to the TV!
