A friend and I were driving through Coral Gables the other day and we came upon this. Far be it from me to criticize another's art, but come on, this is art? We had a tropical system passing through the area and I almost thought this was something that fell from a building or was destroyed in the storm, only one thing - the storm hadn't arrived yet!
Then I found out that the City of Coral Gables paid almost $1 million for this piece that looks like it's out of Little Shop of Horrors, we were afraid to get to close fearing that it would start singing, "Feed Me," and eat us alive.
Coral Gables chose an artist from New York, Alice Aycock to create the commissioned piece. I don't think I've seen anything this ugly even in New York. Is she punking us? She was chosen out of 181 other artists, I shudder to think what they came up with if this was the winning piece. There are actually two of them, a big one and a little one. At first I thought they were multiplying, but there are only the two.
In all fairness, Alice does a wonderful job with sculptures, you can see her work at her website here: www.aaycock.com. But are these flowers a good example of her work and are they worth $1 million?
They are sort of in a back area of the Gables, off Biltmore Way and Coral Way, near the traffic circle on Segovia, where the business area meets the residential area, near the Grenada Golf Course. Check it out if you get a chance, don't get too close, and let me know what you think.
There's a petition to get rid of them, so not sure how long they will last. It may just end up being expensive scrap metal.
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