It may sound absurd but it’s true. Pieces of the Miss Liberty’s body can be found scattered across two boroughs in NYC. But don’t worry! This is only a replica of the Statue of Liberty as the original one still stands untouched on its very Liberty Island since given as a gift by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in 1886.
Creator of ‘We the people’ collection, Vietnamese artist Danh Vo spent the last four years recreating the statue in 250 full-scale individual pieces. “I wanted to do something that everyone had a relationship to, and make it a bit unfamiliar. It’s kind of like creating a Frankenstein that gets its own life”, says Vo.
Using the same fabrication techniques and copper material as the original Lady Liberty, the artwork was “conceived in Germany, fabricated in Shanghai, supported by his French gallery, collections and art institutions worldwide, and dispersed to exhibition venues in more than 15 countries”, explains Vo.
“When Bartholdi created the Statue of Liberty…he created an image and a political agenda,” adds Vo. “What I’m doing with it is a shift of scale and shift of meaning.” He added that his work “is more a project that should evoke discussion in the place that it is exhibited. And we’ll have to wait to see what that will be”.
In collaboration with Public Art Fund 53 colossal fragments of Liberty can be found at Brooklyn Bridge Park and City Hall Park until December 5th 2014. ‘We the people’ collection presents nearly a fifth of Vo’s project and comprises body parts of the Miss Liberty such as the statue’s right sleeve, the one that covers her right bearing arm, the ear of the statue placed beneath the cornerstone of the historic building, and links of the chain found at the feet.
“When you’re looking at a massive piece of copper that you have a very intimate relationship [with] right in front of you,” says Andira Hickey, the Public Art Fund’s associate curator, “and see it completely transformed into a full figure that you can recognize in the distance, it’s such an evocative metaphor for the multitude of perspectives you can have of an icon like that.”
If you are not a private collector this is a great opportunity to come very close to Miss Liberty and experience the magnificence of the statue. And if you look carefully enough you might be able to recognize the dismantled pieces of the Statue of Liberty as you know.
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Source and photo credit: brooklynbridgepark.org, online.wsj.com, nytimes.com, hqdesktop.net
Camilla G.//SMC Editor
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