Exploring Issues: The Orange Sculpture, aka, Planetariummonetarium

A local artist led a group of students on a "Banner Project" to install artistic banners on the James Street Parking garage in Peekskill. They unveiled their months worth of work this weekend. To my surprise, on the unveiling  became a controversial topic yesterday.

Patch user Jill Gertz criticized the banners and went deeper into the subject of public art projects in Peekskill. "The sculptures at the riverfront are awful - they look like mines," Gertz wrote.

This prompted user Hypotenuse Jackson, who writes under that pseudonym and always refers to himself in the third person, to agree.

"Jill - you're right about the riverfront sculpture looking like a mine. When Hypo first saw that thing, he thought a Revolutionary War mine somehow got loose from its watery grave and crept up on shore. Turns out it was Art. Same thing with the orange Dutch Cheese House at the other end of the Green. It looks like it fell from the sky and just landed there."

"Hypotenuse" is talking about artist Daan Padmos' Time Sharing, 2009 sculpture on the northwest end of when he refers to the "Dutch cheese house."

I believe the "mines" that Gertz and "Hypo" write about is the sculpture shown above. The sculpture was created by artist Serge Omnen and is from the Hudson Valley Art Center in 2009. It is called planetariummonetarium, "drawings in kaleidoscopes in metal sphere with one cent coins from around the world," according to the website. He described it as ‘An intimate inner-space on the wide shores of the Hudson river,’ according to HVCCA's Facebook page.

What do you think about it? Take our poll and tell us in the comments.

I personally do not think it is the prettiest piece of art I have seen, but I have had some fun photo shoots with it. See photos above.