Visitors can get up close and personal with Gaetano Russo’s statue of Christopher Columbus in fab installation by Tatzu Nishi (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Columbus Circle
59th St. at the intersection of Broadway, Columbus, and Eighth Aves.
Extended through December 2, free with timed ticket
www.publicartfund.org
discovering columbus slideshow

For one hundred and twenty years, Sicilian sculptor Gaetano Russo’s Carrara marble statue of Christopher Columbus has towered high in the air in the middle of Columbus Circle, far from view atop a seventy-foot granite column. But now German-based Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi makes the Italian explorer much more accessible inside a customized American living room in the genius installation “Discovering Columbus.” Over the last decade, Nishi has created temporary structures built around existing architectural monuments in Guatemala City, Hamburg, Singapore, Basel, New South Wales, and, most famously, Liverpool, where he designed “Villa Victoria,” a functional hotel suite constructed around a statue of Queen Victoria. For his first project in the United States, Nishi has chosen to bring Russo’s thirteen-foot-tall statue, which was presented to New York City in honor of the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s famous voyage, face-to-face with visitors, who can climb up six flights of stairs to enter an idealized, temporary American room replete with chairs, couches, a mirror, framed prints, a bookshelf — and the Columbus statue standing in the center, atop a coffee table. Everything was carefully selected by Nishi, from the newspapers, furniture, and artworks (by the likes of Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock) to the flat-screen television and specially designed wallpaper, which features cartoon images of such American icons as Michael Jackson, Mickey Mouse, Elvis Presley, and McDonald’s. Visitors, who enter with free timed tickets that must be reserved in advance, can look but not touch (photos are allowed) as they walk around the statue, examining every nook, cranny, and crevice of the extremely weathered work; be sure to check out under Columbus’s cloak for a section that has not been nearly as ravaged by snow, rain, heat, wind, and bird droppings. And be sure to check it out from the ground on the southern side as well, where it appears as if Columbus is standing at the window, enjoying the remarkable view. It’s a spectacular opportunity to see such a landmark up close and personal, no matter your feelings about Columbus, whose discovery of America and treatment of the native population seem to increase in controversy every year. Nishi did not choose this specific monument for political reasons; instead, the Public Art Fund project is a joint venture with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, which will begin a major restoration of the statue after the installation closes to the public on November 18 [ed. note: now extended through December 2], keeping the stairs and scaffolding in place for the conservation team, which will work to maintain the promise made at the statue’s dedication on October 12, 1892: “in imperishable remembrance.” Tickets are going fast, so don’t hesitate to book a time now for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.