While New Yorkers may not all agree on which urban critter best symbolizes their city—the resilient rat, the nuke-proof cockroach, or the scrappy pigeon—the latter may soon have an edge in the form of a 16-foot-tall monument perched atop the High Line elevated park on the city’s west side. The next commission to alight above Tenth Avenue on the park’s prominent plinth will be “Dinosaur” (2024), a hyper-realist aluminum sculpture of a pigeon by Iván Argote, the Bogotá-born, Paris-based artist.
“The name ‘Dinosaur’ refers to the sculpture’s scale and to the pigeon’s ancestors who millions of years ago dominated the globe, as we humans do today,” Argote said in a statement. “The name also serves as a reference to the dinosaur’s extinction. Like them, one day we won’t be around anymore, but perhaps a remnant of humanity will live on—as pigeons do—in the dark corners and gaps of future worlds. I believe this sculpture could generate an uncanny feeling of attraction, seduction, and fear among the inhabitants of New York.”
The 16-foot-tall pigeon is made of aluminum and will be displayed on the plinth at the Tenth Avenue and 30th Street intersection. Like many New Yorkers, pigeons are not native to the region. They are believed to have been brought to the city in the 17th century by European settlers. And, like generations of MBA graduates who moved to the city for jobs on Wall Street, pigeons are thriving in their adopted surroundings and now throng the sidewalks in their shiny suits. The city’s pigeon population is estimated to be larger than its human population, with around nine million birds compared to the nearly eight million people living in the city.