Althouse: Colorado playground.

August 10, 2011

Colorado playground.

Vail, Colorado.

25 comments:

edutcher said...: From the Coloradans I've met, that pretty well sums up the state.; 8/10/11, 9:47 PM
Peter Hoh said...: Looks like fun. Got a close up? I know a blogger who might be interested in knowing more about this climber.; 8/10/11, 9:50 PM
Sprezzatura said...: That is so cool.

I've been on the Parks and Rec committee for a city where I live. That thing would have been a great substitute for the banal stuff we had to select from.; 8/10/11, 9:52 PM
traditionalguy said...: That is European looking design for ma playground.

Aspen has always had more Europeans than Americans living there at ski season.; 8/10/11, 9:54 PM
Chef Mojo said...: AHHHH! The SATURATION! It BURNS!; 8/10/11, 9:55 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Kids can't climb it.

Though it's real pretty. Looks like old roots from an ancient tree. With parents dwarfed by its size, pushing strollers in the background.

Whose work is that?

I love Calder. Doesn't look like Calder. Doesn't look like mother nature's work, either.; 8/10/11, 10:02 PM
john said...: Tucson put one of those things up in front of the library. Apparently no one has any idea what it is supposed to look like, or what idea it is supposed to convey.; 8/10/11, 10:08 PM
Palladian said...: Ahh! The Flying Spaghetti Monster!!; 8/10/11, 10:12 PM
BISkita said...: It's a steelroots exhibit by Steve Tobin. You could have saved the ride and driven to the Minnesota landscape Arboretum ;-); 8/10/11, 10:39 PM
Eric Wilson said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/10/11, 10:42 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: BISkita, very good! The rest of the steelroots sculptures look neato-mosquito too.; 8/10/11, 11:26 PM
JAL said...: Needs a few bears in the forground.; 8/10/11, 11:37 PM
dhagood said...: i've run around vail for decades, and i've never seen that sculpture. or, if i have seen it, it made absolutely no impression on me.

however, most years it would be mostly covered over with snow, so in the winter it would be pretty much invsible.; 8/10/11, 11:53 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: US military to launch fastest-ever plane..

Unmanned

Booooring.; 8/11/11, 12:06 AM
Ralph L said...: Stuff White People like to do naked.; 8/11/11, 12:27 AM
ricpic said...: It mimics giant reindeer antlers, IMO.; 8/11/11, 6:13 AM
Triangle Man said...: It evokes driftwood from Colorado's miles of white sand beaches.; 8/11/11, 7:04 AM
TML said...: Hey, those things are all over the Morton Arboretum west of Chicago.; 8/11/11, 8:08 AM
Mica Vim Toot said...: Ugliness.

So much art today is simply ugly. Art is best when it inspires. Not when it provokes.
Ugly art is a mirror of the society that celebrates it.

Art like this is in need of bulldozing for beauty. Time to start over.

Vim Toot!; 8/11/11, 8:24 AM
Mica Vim Toot said...: Here's another example: The Trinity Church Horror in Manhattan.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/524291637_0983ec3254_z.jpg

These are horrors meant to repel.

Vim Toot!; 8/11/11, 8:28 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm pretty negative about most public sculpture, but I think this is great. It's right next to a playground, so it feels like the jungle gym. It's very sturdy and any kid could try to climb it. It looks great close up and at a distance. It relates to the environment by evoking tree roots and antlers. You can walk up under it and fool around in relation to it. You see it from a far and feel motivated to go over and check it out. I bet the children enjoy it.; 8/11/11, 8:35 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The Trinity Church one does not relate as well to the site, unless maybe you think of the crown of thorns.; 8/11/11, 8:36 AM
Mica Vim Toot said...: Nice to talk to you, M. Althouse.

The photo is unclear but if there are any kids there they are not drawn to the War of the Worlds/Twisted Mastodon Tusks/White Marching Spider monster sculpture.

It is more an apparition to avoid than an invitation to frolic within.

Tugboat capt living in northern-most Maine and working in NY harbor here. The wife grew up on Pierpont St in your old neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights where I sometimes crash with my MIL who still lives there.

She's a nice ol' dame but Aroostook County is nicer.

You and the Mister have done Pulitzer work there in Madison. A great service to us all.

Thank You.

Vim Toot!; 8/11/11, 9:25 AM
Amartel said...: Government, get out of the shot.
That thing in the middle
I like it not.

Well, if you're judging it against other Public Art it's okay. Pretty low standard, though.; 8/11/11, 11:43 AM
Ray said...: @BISkita:
Dear God, thank you. I used to work down the street from where these were fabricated and could never figure out what they were.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1091/848628361_4bc774d721_o.jpg; 8/11/11, 9:37 PM