CARDBOARD BERNINI
by Donald Kuspit



In homage to Bernini, James Grashow has made a Baroque fountain, inspired particularly by Rome’s Trevi Fountain. But where the Trevi Fountain is made of stone, sturdy and likely to be permanent, Grashow’s fountain is made of cardboard, decidedly fragile and temporary. And where the Roman sea god has a baroque swagger, and sits precariously above his fin-winged horses, who have a nervous energy, not to say vivifying excitement, Grashow’s somewhat more somber sea god is securely enthroned on a pedestal, his body static and poised, his feet carefully placed, unlike those of the Roman sea god, which dangle above the fountain below him, as though about to step into its water.

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