The 164-acre park at North Carolina Museum of Art’s Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park gains a few new occupants this spring, in the form of two enormous sculptures. Jaume Plensa’s "Awilda & Irma," a twofer, steel mesh set of heads, and Jaime Hayon’s interactive, rocket-like "SCULPT. C" were recently installed at the museum. On April 21, NCMA marks installations with the event Hoopla: Party in the Park.
There, but not really. That’s the context for Barcelona-born artist Jaume Plensa’s public sculptures. They might seem like intrusions. They’re large. They’re set where people congregate. And the figures themselves are huge monumental heads. They sit in business districts and in front of an art museum. They emerge from the ocean. They hover above unsuspecting pedestrians. They rest in the neighborhood that surrounds the Venice Biennale.