Street Pigeon Elevated into Towering Sculpture in New High Line Exhibit
The artist Iván Argote, who spent over a year making “Dinosaur,” which opened to the public on the High Line on Oct. 17 admits to seeing some humor in turning a lowly street avian into a towering, two-story painted aluminum sculpture.
This is one pigeon you really don’t want to miss–or mess with.
The newest High Line exhibit entitled “Dinosaur” officially opened on Oct. 17th with an 18-foot tall aluminum sculpture of the lowly street pigeon elevated into a towering two-story-tall work of art sitting high above street level atop the High Line.
Designed by 40-year-old Colombian-born artist Iván Argote, the sculpture is meant as a tribute to grand proportions and our ancient ancestors, he says. He is one of two sculptors commissioned by the High Line in 2020 to create a public work for the Plinth on the Spur, the final part of the elevated park at the intersection of 10th Avenue and 30th Street.
Argote’s piece is the fourth commissioned artwork, in total, for the site and replaces Pamela Rosenkranz’s “Old Tree,” a flaming reddish-pink beacon that dramatically rose above the traffic on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel beginning in May 2023.
He is the the youngest artist and the first from Latin America to showcase his talent on the High Line Plinth. Argote spent roughly one year constructing the 18-foot-tall sculpture he named “Dinosaur” in a foundry in Mexico City, where he made a clay model that was later cast in aluminum and transported to a workshop in New Jersey for hand painting.
The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation dubs the pigeon “NYC’s unofficial avian mascot” on its website, “as much a part of NYC’s identity as bagels, pizza, and the subway.” They’re a given, a part of the city’s DNA. In an interview with Straus News, the artist noted the birds’ “emblematic” stature, albeit “marginalized” and “badly loved.”
But maybe that’s the point. Argote seems to be making a jokey comment about changing the dynamic between humans and non-human species, elevating marginal figures like the lowly street pigeon above more revered figures—so-called great men—who arguably don’t deserve all the attention they get.
Per a statement on the High Line’s website, pigeons have contributed to society in big ways. They were war heroes, acting as military messengers during World War I and World War II. “Argote humorously suggests that, in fact, the not-wild—but no longer domesticated—birds are likely more deserving of being placed on a pedestal and celebrated for their contributions to society than most.”
Of course, this monumental, hyper-real bird sculpture is humorous in more ways than one. “I liked the change of scale because birds are what remain from dinosaurs that, as we say, used to dominate the world. I wanted to change the scale of the pigeon and make it [the size of] a tyrannosaurus rex. So by changing the scale, somehow we become the pigeons, we become the little ones, and it becomes a more threatening animal,” he said.
A sculptor and filmmaker based in Paris, Argote has devoted the better part of his career to working in the public space and challenging norms. He’s concerned with social justice issues and historical narratives–specifically, challenging narratives and telling new stories.
“I’ve done a lot of projects and performances in the public space–in the subways, on the sidewalks. I’ve done interventions on monuments, and I’ve also done many public sculptures. It’s at the very core of my work. And most of my projects question or ask questions like: ‘How do we interact with each other in public spaces? But also, for example, What kind of history is represented in the public space? What kind of monuments do we have, and what do they mean? And why do we have [one type of] monument and not other kinds of monuments?”
The commission to design a freestanding work to sit on top of the Plinth (definition: a base to support a column or statue) was a particular challenge to Argote because he’s not a big fan of verticality and putting figures on pedestals. “I like the idea of horizontality,” he told us. And taking aim at sacred cows.
So the pigeon, a New York City icon living on the fringes, appealed. “It’s interesting that this kind of sculpture pushes us to be at the feet of some [other being]. Or be, or try to feel, what it could be like to be a pigeon and marginalized as they are. I think it’s interesting to question the relationship between humans and animals. And then maybe that causes us to reflect on it. Like, How do we interact with other species, because we are so self-centered? So it’s interesting to introduce another perspective with this work.”
“Dinosaur” will be on view until May 2026, part of the High Line Plinth’s rotating program of contemporary art installations, each on display for approximately 18 months.