Daily What?! This Tribeca Park Sculpture Made of Trash Represents the Goliath That is New York City

This face is kind of terrifying, but that’s what makes it so appealing to the eye. Brooklyn artist Nicolas Holiber has built this four-feet-long monster out of trash, and it now sits in Tribeca Park. This sculpture took Holiber a month to build —  he spent almost every waking hour creating this four foot tall piece, in his studio, which he told us via e-mail is “only about 150 square feet.” He documented the entire experience on Instagram, showing progress from idea to reality. Besides the materials in his studio and throughout his travels, other parts of the “Head of Goliath”  come from NYC street artist Hanksy’s last show Best of The Worst.

Holiber moved to the city in 2007 — living his dream after only seeing Manhattan on short trips. According to our conversation, he has friends and family here, all living up to their desire to move to the city and live here full time. According to an article on Gothamist, the head is supposed to represent the city itself. The city (much like Goliath) towers over those who stand before it. However, as the story goes, David kills the giant, who underestimates him. When asked about the use of biblical imagery, Holiber stated that he “chose to make Goliath mostly for the metaphor. That, and getting to put a giant decapitated head in lower Manhattan was very appealing to me.”

Holiber’s actual influences have wide range from “classical themes that are common throughout art history, especially Greek myths, heroic masculinity, and the heroic male ideal.” To “African masks, or sculptures from Native Central and South America, Oceania, Central Asia, Native North America, etc.” While being very diverse, Holiber finds a connection to the work, combining it together to form a style that shows in his work both large and small.

The sculpture will stay in the park for a few months, in which Holiber hopes that the elements will come and make an impact on his work. There will be an official repetition on May 16th, we advise its attendees not to bring stones.

He doesn’t think Goliath was all bad, for he did build roads and schools for the people. If you get that reference, contact the author on twitter @ChrisLInoa