VISUAL CLUE ADDED JULY 22
VISUAL CLUE ADDED JULY 23
VISUAL CLUE ADDED JULY 24
BONUS VIEW ADDED JULY 24
Photos: David Marc Fischer
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42 comments:
Alice in wonderland in central park?
No...sorry!
Manhattan?
Yes!
Central Park?
Nope!
Are you are the Children's Scupture Garden in that park next to St. John the Divine? The "Peace Fountain" perhaps?
Is there a reason I'm thinking of Diana, goddess of the hunt?
Getting colder, Gary.
Dolph, there's probably a good reason (but not necessarily a great one).
are you above 42nd St?
I wasn't.
WERE you in Riverside park?
never mind. what was I thinking? How about this guess, are you below Houston?
No, I wasn't below Houston.
Let's see if I can use the right verb tense this time. Were you in Madison Sq. Park?
Were you a guest in this place? Did someone have to let you in?
No, I wasn't in Madison Square Park.
And no, I didn't have be allowed or escorted into the place.
I didn't have to be escorted out, either!
Were you East of 5th Ave?
Nope!
Were you in Bryant park?
Nope!
Were you in a city park?
Yes.
Washington Sq Park (at least the portion west of 5th)?
We're running out of real estate. How about Chelsea Park?
Warmish.
That "warmish" was for Gary.
Chelsea Park? Not so warmish.
jackson square park at greenwich and horatio?
Cooler.
JJ Walker Park?
You're warmish again--dy-no-mite!
Minetta Triangle? BTW, where is everyone?
Minetta Triangle is very warm. As for the question of where everyone is...that's another game entirely!
LOL. Father Demo Square?
No, but your guesswork is definitely in good shape.
Little Red Square?
No, but you're still in good shape!
Sir Winston Churchil Square? Does the sculpture help name the park?
Sutton Place Park, East River btw. 56th and 57th.
I've been away all weekend, but now that Gary has done all the ground work, I'll guess the Downing Street Playground on the corner of Downing St. and Sixth Avenue.
Does Downing St. Playgound encompasses Sir Winston Churchill square? I was unable to tell.
Am I correct that the sculpture is of a gyrocompass? I think of these compasses being used in nautical times of old, but can't come up with a compass- or nautical-themed park.
Jolly good show, Gary! By never, never, never giving up...you correctly identified the location as Sir Winston Churchill Square!
I would have posted this sooner, but I ran into technical difficulties posed by Blogger.
Anyway, Gary asked if the sculpture helps name the park, which is, of course, named after the man who "occupied" 10 Downing Street in London as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II.
The name of the sculpture and its sculptor remain unknown to me, but some research reveals the following.
The location of Sir Winston Churchill Square at the junction of the Avenue of the Americas and Manhattan's Downing Street (very close, in fact, to Manhattan's 10 Downing Street) reflects a conscious decision.
The sculpture, set in the garden portion of the small city park (there's also a modest playground), is actually an armillary that incorporates archery as well as zodiac imagery and also suggests a globe and (to me, at least) a gyroscope. That is not uncommon for armillaries, many of which also incorporate bow-and-arrow elements.
In the first and third pictures you can see the fletching and the arrowhead, respectively--their rounded, "soft" modeling might help them blend in with the garden plants.
The fourth picture is shot "in line" with the arrow, revealing how the rings or bands of the armillary form a target-like pattern of concentric circles. You can also see that one of the bands contains Roman numerals from I to XII. On the other side of that band are astrological symbols.
I've added a fifth picture to give you a full view of the armillary in its garden habitat. You can see a clearer shot here.
Though archery and zodiac allusions are common to armillaries, the combination of archery and astrology in this particular example might be a reference to Sagittarius, which is Winston Churchill's sign. Winston was born--to a mother who was a New Yorker--on November 30, 1874. I imagine that no baby has ever looked more like him.
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