Storefront installation in Croton Falls, NY
Just pretend the linoleum is sand. And if you stared hard enough it could be sand. The multiples of maybe sixty 8 inch tall running men came into focus and stretched along, little energetic figures running madly but in perfect order in a serpentine form. Smithson had the open desert, we have the vacant building next to the post office in Croton Falls.
At night a low spotlight projected some of the figures up huge on the walls. Like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Maybe what you pictured would happen when you went away and all kinds of little things ran around your house. Spooky. Vaguely creepy, but in a harmless kind of nice way, not like the movie Gremlins or Chucky but then not exactly like nice Irish leprechaun’s or maybe it’s elves?, because there is something mischevious about leprechaun’s who probably have some hidden agenda, but anyway it probably is elves who actually do useful stuff when you are not home like repair things or finish jobs that you want finished and are just too tired and end up going to bed, then wake up and the chore is done!
These little iron running men seem obsessed with some task all in unison. Nice that it’s across from the Metro North train station where there is a constant stream of men (yep, mostly men) fast walking to their cars to get home at night from the daily grind. Check it out. It will be up until someone complains.
Running Men are by the artist Toby Rosser and available in multiples of 3 to 3,000 at Lift Trucks Project. The installation references the famous earth artist Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty.