6. Tom Otterness’ Surprising Sculptures
Artist Tom Otterness‘ public sculpture installation The Real World features everything from faces on the ground to cute animals and mini characters seemingly in a state of war. Otterness is known for his playful yet political and cartoonish figures, which are found throughout New York. Otterness often riffs on capitalism, featuring bankers with money bags for heads, workers holding hammers, and other whimsical figures.
The Real World is a collection of sculptures in Rockefeller Park featuring bronze characters in unexpected places, some ready to pounce on passersby, others mischievously fighting. Sculptures range from a monkey in a top hat grasping its young, two rather amorphous feet, a tilted house with money falling from the side, and little characters playing with chess pieces. In one particularly surprising sculpture, a cat is tied to a wooden board that is carried by other animals. In another, a dog is forever tied to a pole, which was in part inspired by one of his early, very controversial, videos in which he shot a dog.