Big Bling (2016), a monolithic sculpture by the American artist Martin Puryear that was installed this month in Madison Square Park, is “an ode New York City that symbolises its quintessential urban energy”, the artist said during a talk at the School Visual Arts on 25 May.
The 40ft-tall sculpture, on view until 8 January 2017, is a multi-tiered construction created from treated plywood wrapped in chain-link fencing with a 22-carat gold-leaf shackle anchored near its highest peak. The shackle represents “that gold beacon of success that we are trying to reach and acquire in New York, but that for most of us is and will always be beyond our reach”, said the artist, “while the wooden tiers represent that stratification.”
Puryear chose to title the work using “populous verbiage”—aka slang—“because most people in New York know what ‘bling’ means”, he said. “The park is a highly democratic area that can be heavily trafficked by people who are maybe not primed to look at art, and the title gives it meaning—which is something that public art can try to do, even though it’s not a rigid criteria.”
Next May, the work will move cities and will be installed in Philadelphia for six months by the Association for Public Art.