High-profile artists Elmgreen & Dragset unveil sculpture in New Orleans
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Elmgreen & Dragset's new sculpture called "Maybe (Not)" is now on view at the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden in New Orleans. Photo: Courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art
Elmgreen & Dragset, of Prada Marfa fame, recently unveiled their latest piece in New Orleans.
Why it matters: The New Orleans Museum of Art commissioned the art as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
The big picture: The 18-foot-tall diving board sculpture called "Maybe (Not)" is in the garden's lagoon. It is made with bronze, stainless steel and lacquer.
- The diving board has two people on top — one sitting and one standing — who appear to be deciding whether to jump.
- "The artists often return to the motifs of swimming pools and diving boards as both a critique on the decline of civic spaces where people meet, learn, play and interact and as an acknowledgment of public pools as places where strangers are more exposed and vulnerable to one another," NOMA said in a statement.
By the numbers: Walda Besthoff donated the funds for the installation, NOMA said.
What's next: The museum will add a new piece this fall from Sarah Sze's "Fallen Sky" series.
- "Certain Slant of Light" will be a 12-foot-wide spherical cavity embedded in the landscape of the garden.
- The pieces are sheathed in mirrored stainless steel and reflect the surroundings, NOMA said.
If you go: The 12-acre sculpture garden is in New Orleans City Park. It's free to visit and open seven days a week.
- The garden has nearly 100 works of art already, including ones from Auguste Rodin, Louise Bourgeois and Ida Kohlmeyer.
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