Well, by Leonard Uraschi: Sculpture in Cadman Plaza Park

By on January 7, 2012 11:06 pm in Arts and Entertainment, Visual Arts

Your correspondent took advantage of a fine day do do his first Brooklyn Bridge walk in several months. On the way, he was surprised to see a new installation of public art at the north end of Cadman Plaza Park.
The piece is called Well, by Leonard Uraschi. More images and text after the jump.

Here’s a closer view of the well part of the sculpture. It’s made from driftwood (base), acrylic resin, and plastic water bottles.

The water barrel, standing nearby, is made of steel, with a mirror surface.

The sculpture will be there until April of this year.

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  • Andrew Porter

    This has been there since, I think, October. Got to change your route, Claude, see new streets and places. Our weird warm weather (alliteration!) is a help!

  • Gerry

    I love this scultpture!

  • AEB

    Yug.

  • stuart

    thank goodness it’s not permanent.

    It is garbage art and it should go in the recycle bin.

  • EHinBH

    wish the park would do more installations. keeping it just as a dirt patch worries me that the city will come in one day and make it an exit ramp or toll station for the Bridge. I want something more perm to happen there. A sculpture park would be awsome. I would even be fore making it another soccer field…

  • Andrew Porter

    EH: Proves you haven’t been there. Oval shape, way too small for soccer, this is next to pathway from Cad Plaza W. to CP East and stairs up onto bridge. Art appreciation is all in the mind. Doesn’t grab me personally, but…

  • stuart

    it is a little insulting that this is what city officials and the Design Commission think Brooklyn resdients deserve. A mud patch and an art installation made of plastic water jugs.

  • Rick

    What I found especially beautiful is how when the sun shines on it, it becomes luminous. The light shines through all the different layers, making it seem aglow from within. It’s a quality that can’t really be captured in photos.

  • http://www.bbawc.org Doe S

    While walking my pup thru the park, I watched as it was installed some time ago. I like it and wish they would do more of this at CP Park.

  • Jorale-man

    I like having the sculpture there but what puzzles me is that the park is barely maintained otherwise. Compare it to Brooklyn Bridge Park, and it’s night and day. The grass is completely worn in the center, dead leaves collect in all of the shrubbery and the pavement around the WWII memorial is crumbling all over. Considering it’s one of the first things people see when they arrive in Brooklyn they could do a much better job with the upkeep.

  • Josh G

    Totally agree.. is there a group that oversees Cadman Plaza Park? It is a tale of two parks.. the nice turfy landscaped side and, well, the side everyone here is talking about.

  • frenchbull

    hope the city or whoever didn’t pay too much for this work of art

  • stuart

    This corner of parkland is the first impression of Brooklyn to many. I would love to see a really distinguished work of art here. A Calder perhaps, or perhaps a vintage work of art. Something aesthetically pleasing and dignified.
    That would be great.

  • hicks st guy

    @stuart, after reading your comments, will you decide what is “aesthetically pleasing and dignified”? I hope not.

  • Master Of Middagh

    It’s AWFUL! Simply AWFUL!!

    It looks like somebody took away the sculpture and left the containers it came in just lying around. I agree with stuart- the people deserve something a little (A LOT) more appealing.

    I’m weary and wary of people who say “art is in the eye of the beholder” as an excuse to subject people to any old junk. And that’s what this is, It’s boring and ugly. Does nobody know how to carve real stone anymore?

  • stuart

    hicks street guy: I know enough to say that this peculiar, rough hewn tableau is in no way aesthetically pleasing or dignified. Could I select a much better work of art to take its place? You bet I could!

  • David on Middagh

    I’ve seen it in person; Claude’s picture is better.

    Josh G., the logical Park-care citizens group (if that’s what you meant) would emanate from the Cadman Plaza towers, but for some reason…

    Of course, the Parks Dept. didn’t help foster a sense of citizen ownership by taking down the quaint homemade signs that were directing tourists before the official metal *menhirs* went up. (Pardon my French.)

  • Jorale-man

    @David makes a good point – the reason Central Park is in such superb condition is that the neighbors on CPW and Fifth Ave. contribute heavily to its upkeep through the CP Conservancy.

    Ironically, the little park that just opened next to the courthouse is in very good condition, of course. Perhaps a model of what Cadman Plaza Park could be.

  • my2cents

    I think this artist was mentioned in the New Yorker just this past week.