The Standard’s BMOC.

What is it with The Standard’s outdoor sculpture choices?

Last summer Companion (Passing Through), an enormous rendering of artist KAWS’ signature cartoon boy seated and covering his eyes, loomed 16 feet over the hotel plaza and posed irresistible questions.  Was he shy? Scared? Averting his gaze from the hotel’s infamous floor-to-ceiling windows?

Another summer, another sculpture.  This week Big Kastenmann, aka Big Box Man, by Austrian surrealist artist Erwin Wurm appeared on the plaza, even bigger (18 feet tall, 1.6 tons) and just as deliciously puzzling.  Rendered in aluminum and pink enamel, the sculpture is headless, posing the same questions as Companion. (We can’t wait to see the hotel comes up with next summer.) (more…)