Topiary Park

Topiary Park looks like what would happen if Edward Scissorhands reinterpreted impressionist art, more specifically George-Pierre Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

It was interesting to walk around a three-dimensional representation of something I’m so used to experiencing in two dimensions, but the experience couldn’t quite overcome an overpowering feeling of ridiculousness. I wondered if a different medium, like bronze or marble, would decrease the silliness. But then, my associations with the painting were already silly, as the Simpson’s spoof of it adorned my wall throughout college.

Attempts to honor the perspective of the original painting meant some of the bushes towered over us mere mortals, while others you could stand face-to-face with. In some ways the choice of medium for this three-dimensional representation was very appropriate, as the closer you got to the figures the less human they looked, like with pointillism, you have to stand back to experience the picture as a whole.

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