bronze

March 7, 2002 - June 30, 2002
 
Whitney Biennial in Central Park

Entrance of the Central Park Wildlife Center

For the first time in recent history, the Public Art Fund and the Whitney Museum of American Art co-curated a major exhibition in Central Park as part of the Whitney Museum's 2002 Biennial Exhibition. Artists Keith Edmier, Roxy Paine, Kiki Smith, Kim Sooja, and Brian Tolle were commissioned to make dynamic new work suited for specific sites within Central Park. Together, these five installations represented a broad overview of contemporary approaches to public art that were both thought-provoking and accessible to the largest possible audience.

Kiki Smith's Sirens and Harpies was composed of twenty bronze sculptures, each one bearing the head of a woman and the body of a bird. The Harpies-ranging in size from 2 ½ to 4 feet tall-peered down at passersby from each of three pillars at the Central Park Wildlife Center's entrance. The pillars were flanked by large granite boulders, upon which two flocks of smaller Sirens perched, guarding the entrance at ground level. These disarming creatures, based upon the temptresses and monsters of Greek mythology, were both stoic gatekeepers and fantastical reminders of the possibility of a menagerie more magical than the familiar animals inside the zoo.

Artist Bio
Kiki Smith was born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Germany. She has recently had solo shows at International Center of Photography, New York; PaceWildenstein, New York; St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Recent group shows include "Unnatural Science," MassMoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts; "Over the Edges," Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, Belgium; "Regarding Beauty: A View of the Late 20th Century," Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and "Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism and Self-Representation," MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Smith now lives and works in New York.

Sponsorship
The Whitney Biennial in Central Park, organized by the Public Art Fund, was sponsored by Bloomberg. The exhibition received additional support from City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Challenge Grant 2002, The Third Millennium Foundation, and Melissa and Robert Soros.

Location
Sirens and Harpies was sited at the gateway to the Central Park Wildlife Center.