Monument Without Monumentality: reALIze by Michael Kalish and Oyler Wu

Don’t miss a must-see installation, reALIze, on through Friday, April 9, at the the Nokia Plaza at LA Live. Commissioned by Muhammad Ali, created by artist Michael Kalish and the architects, Oyler Wu Collaborative, this monument to his inimitable self manages brilliantly, say architects Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray, to be “a monument without monumentality.”

<!-- missing image http://newmedia.kcrw.com/dna/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/reALIze-from-below1-150x150.jpg -->“Conceived of as an experiential 2-D image,” says Kalish, “the core of the project is a seemingly random field of 1300 boxing speed bags that, when viewed from a single vantage point, form a pixilated image of the face of Muhammad Ali.” According to Mangurian and Ray (heard on this DnA), “The reALIze piece is a must see. For us, the real success of the piece is that it has engaged such a wide public from art afficionados to sport buffs to the business crowd that works downtown. It is an alive and active field as opposed to a static object – wonderfully avoiding the classic public art syndrome of the plaza sculpture lump.”