Ron Baron Birds

Ron Baron (b. 1957, Springfield, MA) took inspiration for Birds, an installation of Nova Scotia lobster buoys on the old pilings of Pier 34 on the Hudson River, 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 birdlike 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, 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 is made possible through the support of The Greenwall Foundation.