"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there..."
Well known statues and sculptures inspired by Wonderland

Meet Alice in Central Park...New York, New York

Picture
Located just north of the Conservatory Water at East 74th Street, Alice in Wonderland stands eleven feet tall in bronze, surrounded by the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and a few of her other friends.

The sculpture was constructed in 1959 by José de Creeft under the commission of philanthropist George Delacorte so that children could visit and experience the wonder of Lewis Carroll’s classic story. Atypical of most sculptures, children are invited to climb, touch and crawl all over Alice and her friends. In fact, through the decades thousands of hands and feet have literally polished parts of the statue’s surface smooth.

The design for the bronze sculpture was patterned off the original illustrations of John Tenniel that were used in the first published edition of the book. The obvious centerpiece of the work, Alice, who depicts the face of Creeft’s daughter, Donna, is pictured sitting on a giant mushroom reaching toward a pocket watch held by the White Rabbit. Peering over her shoulder is the Cheshire Cat, surrounded by the Dormouse, Alice's cat Dinah, and the Mad Hatter -- a caricature of George Delacorte.  

The sculptor also included an inscription in a granite circle surrounding the work: a line from “The Jabberwocky,” also by Lewis Carroll: “'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”
--Central Park Guide


Salvador Dali's Alice in Wonderland Obsession...United Kingdom

Picture




Almost 5 meters high, Dalí’s bronze Alice in Wonderland was conceived in 1977. Between 1994 and 2010 the sculpture traveled to cities from Florence, Rome and Paris to Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong. It now rests outside of the Moor House in the heart of London.

The inherent humour in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Behind the Looking Glass was an inspiration to Dalí from as early as the 30s, offering a choice of subjects ideally suited to the imaginary worlds manifest in his art. Dali preferred his own Alice, however, the beauty of an adolescent girl with a rose head and bare breasts; Dalí evidently chose his subject for its shock value.
--Art Daily News

The $1.699 Million Dollar Sculpture...Glen Ellyn, IL

Picture
Real estate agent Amy Bendigkeit of Koenig & Strey Real Living Glen Ellyn office, is putting the cold weather and abundance of snow to good use. She has asked Geneva snow sculptor Francis Joseph Gagnepain IV to create a seven foot tall Alice in Wonderland Bunny complete with hearts and trumpet as part of the marketing for her listing 396 Taylor in Glen Ellyn.

Glen Ellyn residents will see the sculptor at work starting Wednesday, February 9 with completion expected by Thursday, February 10.

The home is currently on the market for $1,699,000 and Bendigkeit will hold open houses on Sunday February 13 and 20. Details of the listing are available at http://www.396taylorave.com/
--TribLocal