Installation by Art Domantay Artworks LLC
Lightness of Being | City Hall Park
John Deere Model D, 2013
Painted steel, painted cast iron
Courtesy of the artist and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise
James Angus’s replicas of everyday objects include a 1920s Bugatti racing car, a gorilla’s skull, and a manta ray. In this sculpture, Angus has created an extraordinarily detailed reproduction of a John Deere tractor. However, the artist’s copy is not faithful; he has used digital technologies to meticulously alter the scale and proportions of the original tractor so they appear slightly distorted. As if playing a trick on us, Angus blurs visual fact with fiction, transforming expectations and calling attention to the object’s scale, volume, and form.
