As one walks from Penn Station over to Chelsea to go to art galleries, this big pigeon is almost like a greeter welcoming you to the neighborhood. It’s a sculpture specifically commissioned for the High Line, and it’s titled “Dinosaur,” 2024, by the Colombian artist Iván Argote, measuring 15 3/4 x 8 3/4 x 17 1/3 feet.
I was curious why the artist would title a pigeon sculpture “Dinosaur,” and his explanation from the High Line website is as follows: “The name Dinosaur makes reference to the sculpture’s scale and to the pigeon’s ancestors who millions of years ago dominated the globe, as we humans do today. The name also serves as a reference to the dinosaur’s extinction. Like them, one day we won’t be around anymore, but perhaps a remnant of humanity will live on – as pigeons do – in the dark corners and gaps of future worlds.”
Here’s another picture of the pigeon sculpture as seen from the front, including a young girl looking up at it, to provide a human scale to help you see how big it really is.
If you’d like to learn more about the artist, check out his website here.