Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/70972
[ Circuit ] The Runway Opens in October Just Sayin' I must admit, when I first saw 21c Museum Hotel's goliath statue David (inspired by Michelangelo) towering over West Main Street back in early May, I found it more Cae- sars Palace hucksterish than cutting-edge arty. And actually, to be fair to Caesars Palace, its David replica, standing immodestly in front of the casino complex's Appian Way Shops, isn't spray-painted gold. And it's real Carrara mar- ble, like the original, not fiberglass, like 21c's. And it's full-size, not double-size. So second- edition authenticity can't be the Louisville Da- vid's calling card. Turns out, though, it is . . . sort of. Te 21c David — in truth, a knockoff of a Styrofoam copy "created" by Turkish conceptual art- ist Serkan Ozkaya for the 2005 International Istanbul Biennial — was cast using a precise computer model derived from exhaustive 3-D scanning of the Michelangelo original. Tere's not a chisel mark missed or out of place. Still, you say, that just makes it geometrical- ly pure. And besides, if exactness is your whole point, your art, why inflate the statue's size and give it the gaudy paint job? No small part of the beauty of David is the richness of the white marble itself, how marble and musculature go so well together. Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Here's why the fiberglass David is shiny gold, according to 21c chief curator and direc- tor of art programming Alice Gray Stites: Oz- kaya, she says, "references the knockoffs sold in tourist shops and on street corners everywhere, and in doing so addresses the issue of value, both economic and artistic." Sorry for drool- ing; I was dozing off there. Here's why, according to Ozkaya: "I am not www.celebrations-ky.com [16] LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 7.12 interested in absolute beauty, but in the beau- tiful as an ugly memento." And here's why, according to me: Size seems to be hugely important to contemporary art. And a really good way to grab the attention of people who might otherwise bypass your jumbo art is to spray-paint it shiny gold and put it on the corner of Seventh and Main. — Jack Welch Illustration by Carrie Neumayer