Dupont in Detail: Getting to Know Gandhi

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Experiment Station

The Embassy of India's Mahatma Gandhi Memorial beside Will Ryman's Roses: 58th Street. Photo: Amy Wike

The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial has always provided an interesting context for the Phillips’s sculptural installation space at the corner of 21st and Q Streets. Though the memorial is a permanent installation, the Dupont community has made it a living piece, contributing neighborhood touches to the sculpture throughout the years. Gandhi has been warmed up, lovingly yarn bombed, adorned with flowers and jewelry, and host to a meditation “MedMob,” among other things.

A gift from the people of India and the Indian American community, the memorial was designed and begun by sculptor Guatam Pal (b. 1941) in October 1998 (completed 2000) in celebration of India’s 50th year of independence.

Amy Wike, Publicity and Marketing Coordinator

It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon—

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Klaus Ottmann

August 10, 2011

It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon –
The Flower — distinct and Red —
I, passing, thought another Noon
Another in its stead

Will equal glow, and thought no More
But came another Day
To find the Species disappeared —
The Same Locality —

The Sun in place—no other fraud
On Nature’s perfect Sum —
Had I but lingered Yesterday —
Was my retrieveless blame —

Much Flowers of this and further Zones
Have perished in my Hands
For seeking its Resemblance —
But unapproached it stands —

The single Flower of the Earth
That I, in passing by
Unconscious was — Great Nature’s Face
Passed infinite by Me —

Emily Dickinson (1843)

Putting the Petals in Place: Installing Will Ryman’s 58th Street

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Experiment Station

“The petals in the blossoms are fiberglass covering stainless steel. The way they’re made is that I molded the petals; I wanted it to have a handmade quality to it. So, we’re pounding steel to get these shapes.”
—Will Ryman