Press Release
Artist Bio
Sponsorship
Location
Bibliography

wood, paint

July 1999 - July 2000

Pier 34, Hudson River

Ron Baron's Birds, an installation of Nova Scotia lobster buoys on the old pilings of Pier 34 on the Hudson River, took inspiration from Constantin Brancusi's famous sculpture Bird in Space. Alluding to Brancusi's elegant forms, Baron used the traditionally carved, and brightly painted buoys to represent silhouetted bird-like figures. At low tide the pilings of Pier 34 act as pedestals for the buoys, but as the tide rises the pilings disappear offering only glimpses of the installation. Baron's Birds are a subtle intervention in the riverside landscape, changing in appearance with the ebb and flow of the tides, and reflecting both the historical past and present renewal of New York's waterfronts.

In 1998, Ron Baron was awarded The Greenwall Foundation's Oscar M. Ruebhausen Commission through Public Art Fund's In the Public Realm program, given to an outstanding young artist to create a public work of art. Birds was made possible through the support of The Greenwall Foundation.

Artist Bio
Ron Baron, a Williamsburg artist, culls everyday artifacts from sources ranging from garage sales to thrift stores much like a cultural archaeologist. Many of his sculptures have a geological nature, forming vessels and monuments from castoff objects. He has received awards and fellowships from New York State Foundation for the Arts, the Mid Atlantic National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Yaddo artist-in-residence, and a Lila Wallace-Monet Estate Giverny residency. He has exhibited widely including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Wexner Museum, Configura 2, Erfurt, Germany, Anna Kustera Gallery, The Sculpture Center and Exit Art in New York. Baron has also completed permanent installations for the City of New York Percent for Art, Board of Education, and Lehman College, Bronx, NY.

Sponsorship
Birds is a project of the Public Art Fund, commissioned through In the Public Ream, a program of site-specific proposals and projects by New York artists. In the Public Realm is supported by the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Heathcote Foundation, The Silverweed Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and friends of the Public Art Fund.

This exhibition is made possible through the cooperation and support of the Hudson River Park Conservancy.