The sounds of the Krishna Lunch group’s tambourines and bongos served as the soundtrack for the 20-foot-tall couple’s last dance on the Plaza of the Americas.
The “Whispering Close” sculpture — the last remaining part of the $35,000 “Crossing Paths” exhibition by Seward Johnson that came to campus in June 2011 — was broken down into pieces and lifted by crane onto a truck that hauled them away.
Jenee Castellanos, associate curator of the Sculpture Foundation that loaned UF the statue, said the loan had expired. The piece will return to the artist’s studio in New Jersey for restoration. Castellanos said the loan on that particular statue — inspired by Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Dance in the City” — was extended by the university due to positive feedback.
“It’s been here since I started at UF,” said Mitchell Smith, a 20-year-old UF food and resource economics sophomore. “It’s been part of my experience here, and I hate to see it go.”
But not everyone felt the same way.
In September 2011, Gainesville’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society looped a bright yellow price tag around the landmark statue in protest of tuition hikes. Last Fall, LGBTQ-straight alliance organization OwnUp staged a queer Sadie Hawkins dance underneath it to protest heteronormativity.
Taylor Lilly, a 19-year-old UF natural resource conservation junior, said she was happy to see the statue leave.
“I hope they put something prettier there instead,” Lilly said. “It was kind of ominous and creepy.”
Dowd Studio & Artworks employees remove the top part of the “Whispering Close” sculpture on the Plaza of the Americas on Monday.
