COBBLE HILL — For 13 years, a Cobble Hill street corner has witnessed a ghoulish pumpkin sacrifice every Halloween.
Brooklyn artist Jane Greengold has impaled pumpkins on a spiked-top iron fence near her former home on the corner of Kane Street and Strong Place since 1998, skipping only two years, she said.
Greengold, 68, lived on the block for eight years before she recently moved to Fort Greene. The first time she saw the 274 fence spikes, she thought, "This looks like a space where you could impale heads."
But the pumpkins will see their last Kane Street impalement this Halloween as Greengold looks for a public venue in Brooklyn to host her spooky work.
“It’s time for a new fence,” said Greengold, who has been searching through Brooklyn neighborhoods for the impaled pumpkins’ next venue.
If she can't find a spectacular replacement fence, this year might be the pumpkins' last, as Cobble Hill Blog was first to report.
Greengold, friends and family stab about 100 of the pumpkins themselves. Locals and community members impale their own carved pumpkins on the other available spikes.
For a perfectly impaled pumpkin, the head must be expertly carved so the innards can be removed through the jack-o’ lanterns' features, said Greengold. This keeps the pumpkin’s stem intact and allows a small hole to be cut at the base of the squash for its execution.
Greengold will be setting up her work Oct. 31 from 3 to 7 p.m., as the neighborhood’s trick-or-treaters begin their festivities.
The pumpkins could be on display until Christmas, Greengold said.
“They get pretty gross,” she said.
For more information on bringing a carved pumpkin to Greengold’s “Impaled Pumpkins” exhibit, visit this website or email jane@janegreengold.com.
