If you”™ve looked at the main lawn in front of the entrance to The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum at 258 Main St. in Ridgefield and wondered what watermelons were doing all over the sculpture on display there, you”™ll have a few more months to ponder the matter. Exhibition of the sculpture, “Hera” by Tony Matelli, has been extended through Jan. 1, 2018. The sculpture is part of the Main Street Sculpture series, an opportunity for artists to create site-specific work for The Aldrich”™s most public site, the front lawn.
The museum explains that the work is an extension of the artist”™s Garden Sculptures series, initiated in 2015, in which he defaces garden statuary of classical or religious icons. In this case, Matelli has created a look-alike ancient Greek statue of Hera atop a pedestal. The finish mimics a centuries-old patina. Standing 12 feet including its pedestal, the figure is juxtaposed with hand-painted cast bronze watermelons, whole, halved and quartered. The bronze watermelons don”™t rot like real melons,and Matelli, in his art, contrasts the synthetically preserved with the forcibly decayed.
Funding for the exhibit at The Aldrich is provided by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation and Crozier.
