Big Blue Sculpture Controversy

According to a recent CBS report, a new controversial garden sculpture has been sighted plunked down in a walled courtyard of a new home under construction at Burling and Armitage in Chicago. One neighbor who called the reporter isn’t particularly delighted over it. 

The big hunk of blue steel designed by the famed John Henry sculptor has an uncanny resemblance to one once sitting at Navy Pier for years before it was shipped to Houston in 2000. 

That one was a 70 foot, 45,000 pound (70’h x 38’l x 26’d) behemoth, priced at $340,000 including $20,000 for shipping. It was donated to Houston’s sister city of Shenzhen in China and named “Shen Blue.”  It became a fundraising project for a Houston businessman who after visiting the region thought the Shenzhen’s wide highways and green spaces needed a “public” sculpture. 

The Spindle (car kabob)

So if you live in the area—Chicago I mean--or just visiting, stop by before the city decides the Chicago’s new Blue Shen has some code violation and the owner has to return it to the artist. Or maybe he/she could donate it to replace the most loved/most hated iconic public-art Spindle sculpture located in Berwyn and demolished to make space in 2008 for a popular drive-thru pharmacy. 


The estimated cost to relocate the big car kabob was $350,000! Surely, the big blue sculpture's relocation to Chicago's sister community Berwyn would cost much less. 


UPDATE:  No one liked it! The city won and owner removed it. See newspaper article.