Shvo’s “Getty Station”

The three galleries that I visited in Chelsea all contained beautiful artwork.  Some were sculptures, some were photographs, and others were paintings.  The exhibit that was the most powerful was not indoors, trapped behind a door.  Lalanne’s sculptures of sheep that were on Michael Shvo’s Getty Station provided insight into how we as a people are treating the environment, both through the exhibit itself as well as the reactions it caused.

When I first passed by the exhibit, I was drawn to it because of the grass.  The shade of green was so brilliant and bright that it immediately made the entire station seem out of place.  Once I realized that there were sheep sculptures occupying the colorful lawn, I was puzzled.  I asked myself, “who would put sheep in the middle of Manhattan?”  It dawned on me that we built a city where animals once freely roamed.  People took the animals’ homes from them, and though I was able to grasp this concept, other passersby certainly did not.

One man approached the people handing out information about Lalanne’s project and loudly announced, “I demand to know the meaning of this!”  Others said that it was an “outrage” that someone would take over a gas station with something “as useless as sheep.”  It was very ironic; not only did people take over sheep’s habitat, but New Yorkers themselves can be considered similar to sheep.  We walk in herds, crossing streets in bunches and gathering around each other on crowded city sidewalks.  Lalanne’s exhibit was meant to make people think, and it certainly did.  Unfortunately, some people are not very open-minded.  Still, the piece did its job, and was by far the most evocative and visually pleasing piece that I came across that day in Chelsea.