Urge by Chico Macmurtrie
This has always been one of my favorite sculptures in San Francisco. There is something so lifelike and yet so robotic about the figure. The sculptor works in a team that he formed in 1992, called Amorphic Robot Works. They are a group of artists, engineers and technicians. Some of their work is based on the concept of moving robotic figures, and yet other pieces are haunting and so diverse to belay any attempt to categorize it.
This piece also gives credit to others – Engineer: Dave Fleming – Fabrication/Sculptural Crew: Andrew Forrest, Mark9, Vicente Contredas, Bruce Milligan, Juan Martines – Project Manager: Todd Blair
Chico MacMurtrie was born in New Mexico in 1961 and lives in San Francisco. He holds a B.F.A. from the University of Arizona and an M.F.A. in New Forms and Concepts from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Comments
6 responses to “Yerba Buena Gardens – Urge”
I agree about it being very robot like. And I like it.
I haven’t visited in a while; I so enjoyed going back through your recent posts. I really like the variety of art that you share. This IS a great sculpture. I like the side view, where he seems to be catching his balance!
Wonderful! I like the side view too.
I was going to mention how much I liked the side view too:) Cathy and I are in synch:) The statue definitely has very nice bones:)
I really like the big ball of earth! On occasion I taught geography and a big ball like that would have really helped. I think. 🙂
I also like the way the figure seems to be holding out its arms as if to welcome everyone!
I have always loved this piece of interactive art, but when I was there in April 2013, the poor statue is stuck bent over. I wonder if it’s possible to get it fixed somehow?