2
Mar/15

PETER REGLI: RH NO. 320 (SNOW MONSTERS), 2015

2
Mar/15
(photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Peter Regli hacks into Flatiron reality with twelve marble snowmen (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Peter Regli
What: “RH No. 320 (Snow Monsters)”
Where: Flatiron Plaza, intersection of Fifth Ave., Broadway, and 23rd St.
When: Daily through March 13
Why: It’s been a monster of a winter, so Peter Regli’s “Snow Monsters” look right at home on Flatiron Plaza, a dozen marble snowmen hanging out in the shadow of the Flatiron Building next to Madison Square Park. This 320th installment of Regli’s Reality Hacking series, realized and pending public-space interventions that began back in 1995 in Zurich, follows such other New York City projects as 1999’s “Wall Clocks,” 2000’s “Walk/Talk” and “Post No Bills,” 2002’s “Tempo,” and 2009’s “Flag.” A collaboration between the Dominique Lévy Gallery, the New York City Department of Transportation Art Program, and the Flatiron 23rd Street Partnership, “Snow Monsters” invites curiosity not only because the snowmen look real from a distance (and remain in the exact same position no matter the weather) but because they are on a median that often is home to corporate-sponsored initiatives, but these sculptures are not selling anything, instead just helping New Yorkers pay closer attention to their surroundings and, as Regli says, helping to “put question marks into the everyday world. . . . I chose the snowman because of its Buddha-like nature. They appear briefly in the world, bring joy and evoke memories of childhood, then disappear again, melting away without complaint.”