Jaume Plensa, Echo in New York's Madison Square Park

Well, I'm in NY visiting my mom, trying to reconnect with the art world and generally enjoying the city--which is easy to do without a car here.

One thing NYC really lacks is a formal public sculpture garden of any size. (sorry Socrates Sculpture Park doesn't really qualify)

In recent years the city has really made up for this through a range of permanent and temporary site specific public art projects spread throughout the city.

This is the giant ethereal head, Jaume Plensa placed in Madison Square Park, creating an unreal dreamlike peaceful experience in the heart of the city.

"Clearly, though, more than poetry has gone into “Echo,” his 44-foot-high sculpture of a girl’s head, which was raised in Madison Square Park last week. (With a budget of $620,000, it is the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s costliest project to date.) The work is made from an amalgam of polyester resin, white pigment and marble dust, and its glittering neck rises straight from the grass, creating an otherworldly beacon amid the furor of the Flatiron district."

NY Times article