Gay Liberation

Originally uploaded by buster/ken.

Those white life-sized statues at Stanford? I just happened to stumble across the same ones in New York City, in Christopher Park. At Stanford I walked right by them - they seemed eerie, rough-looking, and not really that attractive, and so very alone in the middle of a plaza or walkway. In fact I had a distinctly “yeah whatever!” reaction as I walked past.

BUT. In the middle of New York City they looked different and more eerie, surrounded by real live people. The art was definitely better in a different frame. With the Stonewall Inn in the background, I *got it*. I got it that they were gay couples shown in a moment of ordinary life, public life on the street, being affectionate in a low-key way. I got it that the whiteness of the statues showed sort of an archeological perspective, putting gay liberation into the context of history; giving it a history. Like they were just dug up from the ruins, handlebar mustache, hippie hair, and all.

And so I looked more carefully at the statues, read the plaque, and then later looked it up.

The title of the sculpture is “Gay Liberation” and it’s by George Segal. Give the article a read, and if you’re in Palo Alto, go check out the statues. I could still wish for them to have a more public home, a busier city-street frame than Stanford campus.

I also realized while reading about George Segal that he’s the same guy who did the Holocaust memorial sculptures in the Presidio - a memorial I really like to visit. It’s a good one for peoplewatching, to see how people view it - do they stay above it, do they go down to the human level, do they keep a distance or do they go into the middle of the scene?

Anyway, I’m blogging over at NYC Metroblog for the next week or so. I’ll do my best to uphold the honor of San Francisco. Come and say hi!