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Ugo Rondinone: air gets into everything even nothing & get up girl a sun is running the world

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If you happen to be walking in Battery Park City over the next few months, you might be surprised to see two leafless white trees that look like they were plucked from the enchanted forest in the "Wizard of Oz" and plopped down in Lower Manhattan. Don't be scared, they aren't evil anthropomorphized trees, but rather a new project by Ugo Rondinone, called "air gets into everything even nothing & get up girl a sun is running the world," presented by Creative Time.

Rondinone picked two 2,000-year-old fruit-bearing olive trees in a field near the town where his parents were born and cast them on-site in rubber. Then the 17-foot trees were cast in aluminum; each weighs almost a ton (that is a lot of cans). This project continues the artist's fascination with trees and forests. The placement the trees in an urban setting deals with his preoccupation with "themes of time and displacement, and the relationship between natural and artificial environments." I can't wait to see how they blend in with the snow, if it ever gets warm enough to snow.

air gets into everything even nothing & get up girl a sun is running the world
1 February-30 April 2007
The Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park
2 West Street
New York, NY 10024
tel. +01 212 206 6674

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