Singing, “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene…,” Dolly Parton pulls at our heartstrings with the tale of a married woman coping with jealousy over a red-haired rival. Self-made in a male-dominated industry, Parton used her first chunk of earnings from her musical career to invest in businesses that would ultimately boost her hometown’s economy. From her $1 million donation toward COVID-19 vaccine research to donations of over 100 million books to children through Imagination Library, her charitable reputation precedes her.
If you weren’t already a fan of Dolly Parton — world-renowned country music singer-songwriter, businesswoman, and philanthropist, you might be now! Though her positive impact echoes across the world today, her roots are humble. She grew up in a one-bedroom log cabin with 11 siblings in the isolated yet majestic Great Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee. As poor as her family was, however, they lived with tremendous heart and soul – Dolly grew up immersed in musical instruments and the sound and feel of Appalachian folk music.
Bharti Kher (b. 1969, London, UK) connects New Delhi and New York with this nearly 18 foot tall bronze Universal Mother figure, entitled Ancestor (2022) which is her most ambitious artwork today. Its source is a miniature statue from the artist’s “intermediaries“ series, assembled by recomposing broken clay figurines. Kher finds these small objects in secondhand markets in India, where she moved in 1992 after being raised and educated in the United Kingdom. Continue reading Bharti Kher’s Ancestor in Doris C. Freedman Plaza→
Artist Metis Atash is known for her Swarovski crystals-encrusted sculptures of little Buddha Babies (which she calls Funkybuddhas) sporting spikey mohawks or embellished with sassy sayings. This pretty Pink one, joyously flipping the bird in a shirt that proclaims “Darling, No is a Full Sentence”(which: truth) was spotted in the Eden Gallery in Soho.
Rudy’s is a famous Dive Bar in Hell’s Kitchen NYC that has a storied history going all the way back to 1933! Rudy’s 6-foot high Pink Pig mascot, known affectionately as The Baron, has stood vigil at the door for about twenty years, and was only stolen twice before they bolted his big butt down!
Gilded monuments and bronze statues evoke the public art of a bygone era, though we’ve recently been reminded of the potent symbolic value they still hold. Artist Gillian Wearing (b. 1963, Birmingham, England) has been fascinated by these sculptures since childhood. For her, there’s something uncanny about a human form that appears immovable and changeless in a public setting. Wearing has alwasy made art about people, usually presented in unexpected ways, in photography, video, and more recently, sculpture.
