2012-06-22

Has Francis Alÿs been strolling in Gold Medal Park?

I was spending some time in William McGuire's Gold Medal Park yesterday and noticed a thin line extending down the spiral path that leads from the top of the parabolic quasi-mound.

Naturally I thought of Francis Alÿs, easily the best extant sidewalk artist in the world. Alÿs has made sidewalk art by (among other things) pushing ice around Mexico City, unraveling a sweater on a walk, dragging a magnet around the city, and having British fur-hat guards march around the financial district.

One of his more explicitly political walks was through the 'green line' in Israel/Palestine, where he dripped green paint along the route of the old 1949 border. The line made corporeal an invisible border through Jerusalem, as well as depicting how the actual public footpath of one person can be traced on a journey through the city.

So, seeing this paint line through the park I was wondering what the Alÿs impersonator might have been thinking about this paint trace. Was it an attempt to depict the gravity of the situation? Was it a giant spiral intended to mesmerize people gazing down from the sky on Google Maps?


1 comment:

Amber Sausen said...

The Gold Medal Park line also glows in the dark! I was there during Northern Spark and wondered if it was an art festival Easter egg.