Just when New Yorkers thought they’d seen everything when it comes to modern art, a freaky new ten-foot-tall sculpture called the “Foot Fountain (pink)” has been erected, so to speak, at one of the city’s busiest destinations.
The phallic-like structure is slated to be presented at Manhattan’s High Line Park through May of 2026 and features what some may consider some not-so-subtle performance attributes.
The piece has several mouths featuring protruding tongues and is topped by a sprinkler that spouts water off its tip when passersby pedal on a nearby machine.
The sculpture is the handiwork of Mika Rottenberg, who was born in Buenos Aires and currently lives in Manhattan. She’s no wannabee artist. Her work has been featured in dozens of museums and galleries around the world, according to the High Line website.
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“WTF,” one observer wrote on an Instagram post showing the sculpture.
“I don’t want to be near that,” wrote another.
The New York Post’s reporting on the installation came right out with what many observers were thinking but not saying.
“So just so we’re clear — nobody saw a foot,” one Instagram commenter stated.
Another commenter got explicit: “I clearly saw a pink penis.”
However, the artist says not so fast with the adult-themed comparisons. On the High Line website, Rottenberg explains:
Foot Fountain (pink) is an overindulgent creature from my drawings. It first appeared as a small sculpture while I was doing some craft work with my daughter during the pandemic. The original version was conceived for the Tinguely Museum in Basel and designed as an irrigation fountain to water a flower garden in its radiant ‘footprint’—nurturing and connecting with the land it touches. Here on the High Line, instead of nurturing the well-tended gardens, I thought it should nurture and cool passersby on hot days, and share some of its overenthusiastic spirit!
This isn’t the first time the High Line has featured unique art, the Daily Mail told its readers. It recalled that last summer a 16-foot pigeon occupied the same place where the Rottenberg installation now stands.
“The pigeon was meant to challenge the grandeur of traditional monuments that celebrate significant historical figures in the city,” the newspaper wrote.
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Support for art featured on the High Line comes from private donors and “public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature,” the High Line website stated.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more
