Craste at The Crocker - The Portland Vase
“The Portland Vase, encompassing the original cameo glass antiquity and its enduring legacy,...
Desert Sun -- Some people will love them. Some people will hate them.
Either way, the gigantic 8-foot-tall babies that take four or five men to carry are guaranteed to elicit some type of reaction once they’re unveiled in downtown Palm Springs, crawling behind The Rowan. Judging by the conversation on Facebook so far, this is going to be the next biggest must-see, must-photograph art installation since "Forever Marilyn," before she left to make way for the downtown revitalization project.
"The 10 Babies," created by rebel Czech Republic artist David Černý, are currently in storage behind the Rowan Hotel in an underground sandpit where residential units will eventually be built as part of Grit Development’s downtown project. But until construction begins, the "Babies" will be set up in this area, in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum, so people looking down into the pit – especially from the hotel’s rooftop – will see them crawling about.
“We’re not in this to win a popularity contest but we want to create something that people will remember. Something that touches people, that will stay with them,” said Christian Hohmann, owner of Hohmann Fine Art Gallery in Palm Desert who helped secure the artwork. “Of course there will be ignorant people that will not care, but hopefully it will bring people to downtown to see it in person.”
“He took the face away and put this stamp of a barcode … instead of what defines their individuality and their humanity. Especially with the way the world has become more digitized… we as a person really no longer count, only as a number, a unit, whether it’s a working unit or a consumption unit. By putting that on a baby it really touches people,” said Hohmann.
For Palm Springs to get the "Babies" is a boon, he said. The "Babies" in Prague can be seen from essentially all over the city and have become one of the most visible artworks in the world, he said.
And though Černý can be polarizing, he does what art is supposed to do — spark conversation.
“That really is what art needs to do. Not just give people what they want. But to make people think. To get them out of their comfort zone into a zone where they have to look at themselves and have an opinion,” said Hohmann.
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