Elmgreen & Dragset Lend Rockefeller Center Van Gogh’s Ear
Elmgreen & Dragset will debut their latest work, Van Gogh’s Ear, a sculpture of an upturned swimming pool beckoning visitors into Rockefeller Center’s Channel Gardens on April 13th. The site-specific installation, complete with a ladder in polished stainless steel and a diving board, was organized by Public Art Fund and Tishman Speyer.
“The title plays on the mythological versus the ordinary,” the artists said in a statement. “Like the myth of Van Gogh cutting off his ear in despair, the dislocated pool will hopefully make people wonder why? and pursue their own reasoning behind this inexplicable scenario.”
The artists are perhaps best known for their ersatz-Prada store in Marfa, Texas. Public Art Fund selected their project for its 18th year of collaborations with Tishman Speyer; previous installations included Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror in 2006, Haruki Murakami’s 2003 mushroom-and-balloon fantasia Reversed Double Helix, and two iterations of Jeff Koon’s blockbuster topiary sculptures, 2000’s Puppy and last year’s Split-Rocker.
Van Gogh’s Ear will be shown through June 3rd, 2016, at the Fifth Avenue entrance to Rockefeller Center’s Channel Gardens between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan. It will then be shown in China by the K11 Art Foundation.
