Elmgreen & Dragset, 'Van Gogh’s Ear', 2016. Rendering
Courtesy the artists and Public Art Fund, NY
A swimming pool will be coming to New York’s Rockefeller Center next month in the name of art… and nobody will be able to swim in it.
Conceived by artists Elmgreen & Dragset, the sculpture is upright, waterless and has a curvaceous shape that gives the whimsical work its name: ‘Van Gogh’s Ear’. It plays on the desire of Manhattanites for public swimming pools in a space-starved city, mirroring the vertical growth of the urban landscape.
New York’s Public Art Fund, which commissioned the project, says: ‘Conceived specifically for this site, where fashion, commerce, tourism, business, and art collide, the work playfully contradicts our expectations of both this familiar object and iconic site.’
Elmgreen & Dragset’s work also riffs off French Dadaist Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’, which was a urinal turned upright.
The artist duo have made their name with witty works such as a fake Prada store they built in the middle of nowhere in Texas and a surreal art fair dedicated to themselves in Beijing.
‘Van Gogh’s Ear’ will be on display outside the Rockefeller Center from 13 April to 3 June.
