Titled Tom Otterness: The Public Unconsciousness, The Large Immigrant Family was the center of the show and features a 10' high, 10' long, 9' wide bronze of a mother and father gazing at their child who in turn is looking out at the world.My personal favorite was Large Consumer, 2007 which is a giant bronze of a overweight slovenly man sitting on a bag of money with his mouth wide open. A ramp leads to his mouth and he appears to be gobbling up truckloads of oil and other products, individual workers that push goods up the ramp (that I assume is an allegory for cheap labor), logs, an oil barrel, a pack of cigarettes, a diamond ring and oversized dead fish. Meanwhile, the consumer's enlarged stomach looks painfully distended.
A and I looking at some of Otterness' other greater than life bronzes:
As I am fascinated with all things ginormous or miniature, it would only make sense that I like Otterness' work. I first became interested in Otterness when I came across his exhibit Life Underground at the 14th Street A,C,E subway station.
At first, I thought they were his form of subversive social commentary only to later find out that the curious, sometimes oversized bronze statues scattered throughout the station appearing to be asleep at their posts or hard at work were part of the MTA's public arts program called Arts for Transit. I like Otterness' commentary, but I'll be the first to admit I was disappointed to find that it was sponsored by the Man. :-)
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