JUSTIN MATHERLY
NEW BEACHES

CITY HALL PARK, NEW YORK CITY, US 
24 MAY – 20 NOVEMBER 2012

The imagery of “New Beaches“ refers to the ancient sculpture, “Laocoön and His Sons“, which depicts a Trojan priest and his sons being strangled by serpents, and has often been cited as the classical ideal of artistic expression. Justin Matherly has adapted a detail of the sculpture, the head and an arm, roughly rendered in cast concrete and enlarged to monumental scale. This colossal fragment is held aloft on an armature of walking frames, which literally provide support to the artist’s contemporary “ruin.“

Ambulatory equipment, concrete, spray paint,
320 x 335 x 183 cm

Commissioned by Public Art Fund, “Common Ground“, 2012.

© Images Jason Wyche