The United States men's national team may have been eliminated from competition, but World Cup fever is still running strong across the tri-state, and now it has taken a decidedly artistic form. Massive soccer ball sculptures have gone on display across New York City and New Jersey, turning one of the world's most recognizable sports symbols into public art scattered throughout the region.
The sculptures are hard to miss. Each stands about six feet tall and is built on a monumental scale, with the pieces weighing in at between roughly 450 and 500 pounds. Rendering a soccer ball at that size transforms a familiar object into a striking landmark, drawing the eye of passersby across the boroughs and beyond.
In all, there are 23 sculptures, a deliberate nod to the sport's 23 tournaments. They are spread across the five boroughs of New York City and reach across the Hudson into parts of New Jersey, part of a project organizers have called Art of the Game that is meant to celebrate the World Cup playing out in the region.
No two of the sculptures are alike. Each is made up of 32 panels, echoing the classic construction of a soccer ball, and the pieces are fabricated from aluminum and stainless steel. The result is a series of large, durable works, each bearing the distinct stamp of the artist who designed it.
Among those artists is Wyatt Kahn, a Brooklyn-based creator who said he wanted to take part in the project in part because his wife is Argentinian. He described photographing the panels at a one-to-one scale to develop his design, and said his work was partly inspired by the notion of the front gates of homes found all over the world.
For the artists involved, the project is about more than the spectacle of oversized soccer balls. Kahn spoke of a hope that the effort could help build a lasting bridge between the arts and sports, noting that the art world had long been insular but had, over the past decade, made more and more attempts to connect with other fields, from fashion to sports to music.
The sculptures are set to remain on display through September 7. After that, according to Eyewitness News, 12 of them will find permanent homes in New York City and New Jersey, while the rest will be sold privately and at auction, giving fans a chance, in a few months' time, to take a piece of the celebration home with them.