What to do with a statue of Christopher Columbus? Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Sep 12 2012

Location: 

New York City

“Discovering Columbus,” by the Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi.

Nishi built a living room around the sculpture in Columbus Circle in New York City. The living room is mounted on scaffolding and turns the sculpture into a domestic center-piece.

"Since 1997, Mr. Nishi, 52, has been fabricating domestic environments around artworks and public monuments, like the kitchen he built around a Picasso hanging on the wall of a museum in Nagoya, Japan.

For his latest project, he enclosed Gaetano Russo’s 1892 statue of Christopher Columbus at Columbus Circle within a living room on a scaffold more than 70 feet up. Visitors will be admitted into the 810-square-foot space for a carved-marble-eye view of Central Park."

From An interview with Nishi in the New York Times.

"If you’ve ever wanted to see what the city’s pre-eminent statue of Christopher Columbus looks like standing on a large coffee table in an upscale New York living room with killer views, now is your chance." - from a NYT review.

Photos on flickr by PeterJr and Matt J Carbone.

Posted by SteveLambert on