Ballerina Clown

A 30-foot (9 m) kinetic figure by Jonathan Borofsky: a ballerina's body with a clown's head, one leg kicked out by an electric motor. It stands on the rooftop corner of the building at Main Street and Rose Avenue in Venice, Los Angeles, commissioned by developer Harlan Lee and installed in 1989. Borofsky described it as "an accommodation or resolution of opposites in one" — male and female in one figure, and the classical ballet dancer joined to the street performer. A smaller version toured first — Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (1983), the Whitney Museum (1984), the Berkeley museum and the Corcoran (1985), and Los Angeles (1986) — and sang rather than kicked; a sister figure stands at the Ludwig Forum in Aachen. Tenants' complaints about the noise of the kicking leg stopped it; it moved again from May 2014. Sources: borofsky.com (artist's catalogue, exhibition history), Wikipedia "Ballerina Clown", Getty "Keep It Moving?" (Aachen figure).

Sculptor

Jonathan Borofsky

Made

1989

Material

Aluminum, steel, fiberglass

Where

Los Angeles, California, United States

Coordinates

33.99620, -118.47790 — open the map

Source

Wikidata Q62704596 — the facts above come from here. Something wrong? Correct it at the source and it flows back.