Installation of Australian artist John Kelly‘s sculpture ‘3 Cows in a Pile’ in Mecklenburgh Square Garden

August 7th, 2005

‘3 Cows in a Pile’ is the creation of artist, John Kelly. Kelly’s previous
works include Cow Up a Tree, which featured on the front page of
Liberation, and in The Times when it appeared as part of the 1999 ‘Champs
de la Sculpture’ exhibition on the Champs Elysee in Paris and the 2002
Monte Carlo Sculpture Festival “Parade de Animeaux’. The sculpture is
constructed of bronze and, when fully installed, is approximately 6
meters high (20 feet), 7 meters long (23 feet) and weighs over 6 tons.
Assembly process involves a large industrial crane.

The work is inspired by the following:
Australia 1942 – “When World War 2 broke out, modernist Australian
painter Sir William (“Bill”) Dobell served first as a camouflage
labourer, later as an artist recording the work of the Civil
Construction Corp, which built airfields and other defence
projects. As a camouflagist, he was one of a group of several later
famous artists who had been ordered to make papier-mâché cows and
move them around the base in the hope of fooling the Japanese
pilots. (Said Bill, ‘I think the authorities underestimated the
eyesight of the Japanese airmen.’)”

Produced and Edited by Goor Moshe

Camera Operated by Stefano Cassini