Entropy and Watermelons (Gone)
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Looking like she was assaulted by an angry fruit stand, the Greek goddess Hera stands on the front lawn of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Sculpted by Tony Matelli, the 12-foot-tall statue was made of cast stone, then bashed and aged to give it the appearance of antiquity. Matelli then made bronze, hand-painted watermelons -- whole, halved, quartered, and chewed -- attached them to Hera's feet, robes, and shoulder, and perched one atop her head. The completed sculpture was unveiled May 6, 2017.
According to a press release issued by the museum, Hera is one of a series of Matelli garden sculptures that "concerns the very circumstance of actuality," and Hera in particular represents "opposing entropic forces, the synthetically preserved and the forcibly decayed."