FLATIRON — Workers have begun erecting a massive plywood installation in Madison Square Park, laying the groundwork for a structure that will soon rise 40 feet above the park.
Construction began on the Madison Square Park lawn this week on “Big Bling,” the four-story, gold-tipped abstract structure built from plywood, chain-link fence, and gold leaf and designed by noted sculptor Martin Puryear.
The installation, which Puryear’s crew built in sections at a studio in Upstate New York, will stand in the park from its grand opening on May 16 until next January.
Workers bustled about the lawn on Thursday, wrapping fencing around the structure’s wooden slats as a crane lowered the installation into place section by section.
"Big Bling," combines geometric angles with more organic shapes, including the spinal curvature of the statue’s rear and the blobby, amoeba-like cut-out in the center of the structure. At the top is the titular bling, a gold-leaf shackle that stands in contrast to the grittier construction materials making up the rest of the work.
The installation will be the biggest installation yet by Puryear, who has shown many of his smaller pieces at shows at the MoMA, New York’s Matthew Marks Gallery and an upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where he is described as “one of the leading sculptors of his generation.”
The Madison Square Park Conservancy commissioned the work two years ago, according to Brooke Kamin Rapaport, the group’s senior curator.
“Martin Puryear is an extremely distinguished artist, and we’re thrilled to have his work in the park,” she told DNAinfo last month. “One thing that’s exciting about public art in New York is the public finds fascination in seeing the piece being constructed.
