Tonight, I took a first close look at the giant sculpture that was placed in front of Baltimore Penn Station back in June. The 51' brushed aluminum statue is titled Male/Female, by artist Jonathan Borofsky (see this City Paper article for background), and is the intersection of male and female cutout silhouettes accented by pulsing LED heartlight. The piece cost $750,000 in private funds to build and was donated by the Municipal Arts Society of Baltimore, which hopes the piece will provoke discussion (it has), and attract tourists (we'll see).

This bizarre installation is just too large for the space around it, and the figure clashes horribly with the architecture of the station building. But I say don't stop now. Let's light it up with flickering orange floodlights and call it Burning Man/Woman. Then we might actually attract an interesting crowd.

- mike lee - baltimore