Italian-born, Alaska-based installation artist Paola Pivi's newest work features a twin engine Piper Seneca suspended in air by its wing tips.
The plane, held horizontal by parallel steel columns, isn't motionless. It quietly rotates forward, tail over nose, 306 degrees at a slow crawl as mystified onlookers stand below. The sight is curiously unsettling. Aircraft are so seldom represented in this way it leads the observer to ask (either aloud or to herself): "Why would she do that?"
The answer is perception.
The NYC Public Art Fund explains,
For years Pivi has been seeking the remote places of the human mind through her work with the absurd. Her tendency toward the improbable is well developed and elegantly played out, often through physics-defying combinations. In a 2006 instillation Pivi placed an upside down Wessex 558 (helicopter) in the middle of an Austrian square and titled it simply, "A helicopter upside down in a public square." The piece was meant as a tribute to the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, yet many viewers overlooked the connection.
For More on Paola Pivi's work check her personal webpage here and for more on "How I Roll," including still shots, check here, here or here.
"How I Roll" was placed in New York's Central Park for June 20 to July 18 of 2012. It was funded in part by the New York Public Art Fund and supported by Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan.
Contact Katie Medred at katie(at)alaskadispatch.com