Dinosaur a giant pigeon sculpture by Iván Argote to land on the High Line Plinth this October

Rendering courtesy of the artist

The 16-Foot-Tall Iconic Bird Will Ruffle Feathers as the Next High Line Plinth Commission

The High Line today announced the selection of Iván Argote’s Dinosaur, a colossal, hyper-realistic sculpture of a pigeon cast in aluminum, as the next High Line Plinth commission. The 16-foot-tall pigeon will be installed on the High Line over the intersection of 10th Avenue and 30th Streets in October 2024, and will be on view for 18 months.

To be posed on a concrete plinth that resembles the sidewalks and buildings that New York’s pigeons call home, Dinosaur reverses the typical power dynamic between bird and human, towering over the countless pedestrians and cars that will meander below its feet. The meticulously hand-painted, humorous sculpture challenges the grandeur of traditional monuments that celebrate significant historical figures, instead choosing to canonize the familiar New York City street bird.

“The name Dinosaur makes reference to the sculpture’s scale and to the pigeon’s ancestors who millions of years ago dominated the globe, as we humans do today,” said Argote. “The name also serves as reference to the dinosaur’s extinction. Like them, one day we won’t be around any more, but perhaps a remnant of humanity will live on — as pigeons do — in the dark corners and gaps of future worlds. I feel this sculpture could generate an uncanny feeling of attraction, seduction, and fear among the inhabitants of New York.”

“Iván Argote’s Dinosaur will add great wit to the skyline of New York,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art. “Iván has a charming ability as an artist to take something familiar and make us consider it anew in profound ways. His sculpture for the High Line Plinth adds a critical yet funny perspective to the ongoing dialogue of public art.”

“Iván Argote’s monumental pigeon on the High Line Plinth demonstrates the power of art as storyteller and equalizer, giving New Yorkers and visitors alike unexpected insights and a common language of joy,”said Alan van Capelle, executive director of Friends of the High Line. “The connections and conversations across cultures, affiliations, and backgrounds that public art inspires are among the High Line’s most important offerings.”

Dinosaur is the fourth commission for the ongoing Plinth program, a landmark destination for public art in New York City, following Simone Leigh’s Brick House (2019), Sam Durant’s Untitled (drone) (2021), and Pamela Rosenkranz’s Old Tree (2023). Dinosaur was first submitted as a proposal for the High Line Plinth in 2020, among 80 proposals that included Rosenkranz’s Old Tree. During the public commenting period of the Plinth selection process, Argote’s proposal proved polarizing, receiving a great number of responses, with many New Yorkers remarking on their strong feelings of affection for or disgust of the iconic and ubiquitous urban wildlife.

Dinosaur recognizes the seemingly prosaic figure of the pigeon and celebrates its anonymity amongst the urban landscape, while also taking aim at classic monuments erected in honor of great men, who all too often are neither honorable nor great. Argote humorously suggests that, in fact, the not-tame, but no longer wild birds are likely more deserving of being placed on a pedestal and celebrated for their contributions to society than most. Further, by highlighting their origins, Argote reminds viewers that, to some degree, everyone is an immigrant. Even the pigeon, a New York fixture, initially migrated here and made the city their home, like millions of other “native” New Yorkers.

Dinosaur, like the pigeons that inspired it, bears witness to the city’s evolution, and confronts us with our ever-changing relationship with the natural world and its inhabitants. Pigeons, the oft-overlooked and derided creatures that seem to over-populate the city, first arrived in the United States via Europe, likely in the 1800s. They were used for food, kept as pets, and presented as symbols of beauty and wealth based on their plumage, but above all, they were used as reliable message carriers. Pigeons have an internal navigational mechanism — known as “homing” — that allows them to always find their way back home. This skill made the bird indispensable in war—they were used as military messengers in both World War I and World War II, saving hundreds of soldiers’ lives by transporting messages quickly to both the trenches and front lines. Many of these pigeons received gallantry awards and were celebrated as war heroes, before technology eventually rendered them obsolete.

Argote is the first Plinth artist from the global south, and the youngest yet. His work as an artist and filmmaker is heavily focused on social justice issues and historical processes, sometimes inspired by his childhood in Bogotá, as he grew up in a family with a long tradition of political and social activism, from the 1950s to the present.

Through his sculptures, installations, films, and interventions, Argote questions our intimate relationships with others, institutions, power, and belief systems. His work foregrounds tenderness and humor, through which he is able to present a critical approach to dominant historical narratives and patterns. In his interventions on monuments, large-scale installations, and performances, Argote proposes new symbolic uses of public space, and challenges our traditional and accepted ideas of whom and what we memorialize, revere, and remember.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Iván Argote (b. 1983, Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in Paris, France. He has held solo exhibitions at institutions including SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia (2024); KØS Museum, Køge, Denmark (2024); Museo del Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia (2023); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2022); Kunstverein Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany (2021); ASU Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona (2019); Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina (2018); Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO), Bogotá, Colombia (2017); MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria (2015); and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2012); CA2M, Madrid, Spain (2012). He has participated in major international group exhibitions, including, Quizá mañana (Maybe Tomorrow), 16th Cuenca Biennial 2023, Cuenca, Ecuador (2023); Off the Pedestals, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster, Germany (2023); Intención poética, MACBA, Barcelona, Spain (2022); L’Avvenire appartiene ai fantasmi, Accademia di Belle Arte di Brera, Milan, Italy (2022); Prix Marcel Duchamp, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2022); Ires y venires, Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia (2021); Global(e) Résistance, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2020); A point of view, in situ installation made for Desert X 2019, Salton Sea – Coachella Valley, California (2019); The Street. Where the World Is Made, MAXXI, Rome, Italia (2018); BIENALSUR, Museo de la Inmigración, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017); among many others.

In 2024, he participated in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia: Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, with an ambitious outdoor installation in the Giardini. His work is featured in the collections of major institutions around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum (New York, US); Centre Pompidou (Paris, France); ASU Art Museum (Phoenix, US); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (Miami, US); Colección de Arte del Banco de la República (Bogotá, Colombia); Kadist (San Francisco, US); MACBA (Barcelona, Spain).

SUPPORT
Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.

Major support for the High Line Plinth is provided by members of the High Line Plinth Committee and contemporary art leaders committed to realizing major commissions and engaging in the public success of the Plinth: Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros, Elizabeth K. Belfer, Fairfax Dorn, Kerianne Flynn, Hermine Riegerl Heller, Janine and J. Tomilson Hill, The Holly Peterson Foundation, Annie Hubbard, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Jennifer Levitt, W. Scott McCormack and Noah Jay, Amanda and Don Mullen, Douglas Oliver and Sherry Brous, Mario Palumbo and Stefan Gargiulo, Susan and Stephen Scherr, Eric Schwartz and Debra Fram, Susan and David Viniar, Olivia Walton, and Vivian and James Zelter.

High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.

ABOUT HIGH LINE ART
Founded in 2009, High Line Art commissions and produces a wide array of artworks on the High Line, including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Led by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and presented by the High Line, the art program invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the unique architecture, history, and design of the park, and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.

For further information on High Line Art, please visit thehighline.org/art.

ABOUT THE HIGH LINE
The High Line is both a nonprofit organization and a public park on the West Side of Manhattan. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, we’re devoted to reimagining public spaces to create connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities.

Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through the gardens, view art, experience a performance, enjoy food or beverage, or connect with friends and neighbors—all while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City.

Nearly 100% of our annual budget comes through donations. The High Line is owned by the City of New York and we operate under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

For more information, visit thehighline.org and follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram.

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