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.