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.
Hayon’s piece, made from painted wood and metal, features an interior and a slide for young visitors to explore. The Spanish artist made a series of enormous sculptures called “Tiovivo,” all designed as path pieces of art and interactive stations.
Plensa’s huge heads, crafted in stainless steel, are portraits of a mother and child. It continues a thread through Plensa’s work in which the figurative and the intimate are blended. The delicate quality in the works, in contrast with the sturdy material, appears different in varying modes of light.
Both installations are made possible through NCMA’s Art in the Environment Fund.
Debra Baxter
At first, Colorado based artist 
French artist 
Netherlands-based artist