a big heads up

February 14, 2016 6:46 PM

How 43 Giant, Crumbling Presidential Heads Ended Up in a Virginia Field
posted by flapjax at midnite (32 comments total)

They were way too charitable about the viability of Presidents Park in Williamsburg. It was weird, and mostly in a creepy right-wing kind of way.

It was also far too remote and expensive to be a cheap laugh or novelty.

Their inability to move the statues without destroying them tells you all you need to know about their business acumen.
posted by schmod at 6:49 PM on February 14, 2016 [7 favorites]

I really want to find a Hamilton quote that fits here but it's not happening.
posted by FritoKAL at 6:55 PM on February 14, 2016

I love this in ways I can't easily express.
posted by figurant at 6:57 PM on February 14, 2016

There's a metaphor, here, but I'm not sure what.
posted by SansPoint at 7:24 PM on February 14, 2016

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 7:25 PM on February 14, 2016 [11 favorites]

Go forth, and kill! Zardoz has spoken.
posted by gwint at 7:25 PM on February 14, 2016 [11 favorites]

Wow. That is the most Soviet thing I have ever seen in America.
posted by selfnoise at 7:25 PM on February 14, 2016 [14 favorites]

Also in VA, Foamhenge. Free, and actually kind of cool.
posted by COD at 7:31 PM on February 14, 2016 [6 favorites]

Why am I not surprised that there are only 43 busts and none of the 44th President?
posted by vuron at 7:39 PM on February 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

Because the reason it was basically abandoned was the person who created it wasn't willing to make a bust of "that person."
posted by eriko at 7:50 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Because the reason it was basically abandoned was the person who created it wasn't willing to make a bust of "that person."

Not so fast...

I know nothing about the guy but I don't hate his sculptures.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:53 PM on February 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

from another article:

"the park was unable to afford a bust of President Obama"

so they had two Grover Clevelands commissioned??
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 7:58 PM on February 14, 2016 [6 favorites]

It's only now, with the degradation of the former, and the exclusion of the most recent president, that we see the true power of the piece as a whole?
posted by bird internet at 8:03 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I really want to find a Hamilton quote that fits here but it's not happening.

Uh...do whatever you want, I'm super dead!
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:08 PM on February 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yeah, cite please on that, eriko? The place was four years into its six-year lifespan by the time Obama was elected . . . considering the way its finances seem to have been run, I imagine they were already having trouble keeping the lights on, let alone buying another giant head. Which is unfortunate for them, since people were so excited about Obama when he was elected that some of them might have actually made the detour to get photographed with his giant concrete head.

I wonder if the park let people climb on the heads? Somehow it seems a little, um, misaligned with their desired mood . . . but I hope so. People LOVE climbing on the mega-Einstein in DC.
posted by ostro at 8:12 PM on February 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

Each bust had to be lifted from its base by a crane, cracking the sculpture’s neck to get the full piece off the ground

Hmm. If you really hated, say, Dubya or Taft, that might have been a really satisfying undertaking.
posted by Mezentian at 8:13 PM on February 14, 2016

Sadly, Civil war dinosaur park is gone. Might have made for a decent combination visit.
posted by destro at 8:29 PM on February 14, 2016

Doomed in part by location—it was hidden behind a motel and slightly too far away from colonial Williamsburg’s tourist attractions, the park went into foreclosure.

I kind of hope that said motel was creepy - it would just make more sense that people drove past the creepy motel and then spotted the theme park o' heads and decided, well, this was really all too much and noped out of there.

OTOH, given that plans are in the works to redeploy the heads...

"Head on down to see your favourite head of state!"

I'll show myself out.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:59 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Found 'em. From above, they curiously resemble giant rolls of TP.
posted by prinado at 9:32 PM on February 14, 2016 [8 favorites]

hah, 42!
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 9:39 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've driven past the abandoned heads in Houston, and love them. They're just as creepy. Driving by his banana sculpture was also a delight, particularly before the paint job.

(it's no longer a delight because I'm not in Houston. Not because it stopped being delightful)
posted by politikitty at 10:42 PM on February 14, 2016

I followed some links to the Houston location--freely visitable, not behind a fence--there's an Obama head. I think.

Also, Related Posts link: finding the right bra size and best fit May 31, 2012
posted by TWinbrook8 at 10:48 PM on February 14, 2016

George Washington seems to be crying

More like he's nearing the climax of a tough boxing match; taken a couple of bad cuts but full of energy. Will FDR be able to do enough work on that worrying eyebrow to get the fight stopped - or will Washington finally get the opening he's been working for all evening, and land the clean knockout blow he's got waiting for FDR's chin?
posted by Segundus at 11:36 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Here's the Chinese version
posted by Ned G at 2:48 AM on February 15, 2016

I'd just like to draw a line under the fact that the artist did, in fact, create an Obama sculpture as shown in this Getty Images page of photos from 2009, and it seems like a weird random smear to say he was wasn't willing to make a bust of "that person." What is the basis of this? Is there some other information that I'm not finding?

"Adickes said he started making the bust Nov. 5, the day after Election Day."
posted by taz at 2:59 AM on February 15, 2016 [6 favorites]

A model of Obama's sculpture was installed at the park almost immediately.
posted by Etrigan at 5:26 AM on February 15, 2016

For some reason I thought this park was older than 2004? I seem to remember going to in when my class visited Williamsburg in 5th grade, which would have been 1995. Hmmmm . . .
posted by chainsofreedom at 5:43 AM on February 15, 2016

Well, we're never gonna see the Presidents now
posted by schmod at 6:37 AM on February 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

We visited the park in 2007, by which points some of the heads were already the worse for wear. It seems the technique used to make them resulted in really weak, porous concrete, so at the minimum some were stained or peeling in weird ways and there were already cracks in a few noses, etc. Woodrow Wilson in particular was in especially bad shape.

We were not at all surprised when it closed.
posted by fedward at 8:03 AM on February 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

David Adickes is a bit of a Houston icon; the Presidential Head thing is older work, really predating Obama, as has been noted, but he did at least start one. He is, however, very old (late 80s?).

BTW, some of those heads were in his studio when he hosted a gala I attended several years ago, which enabled my Irish Catholic wife to pay tribute to her then-favorite president.

Enormous sculptures are Adickes' thing; his work is all over the local area, including a 30-foot-tall stylized rendering of the Beatles (which, I am sad to discover, is now in storage) and the shockingly large 67-foot-tall Sam Houston found north of the city, just to the east side of Interstate 45.
posted by uberchet at 8:28 AM on February 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

Those pictures are giving me some serious Ozymandias feels.
posted by egypturnash at 11:38 AM on February 15, 2016

The Sam Houston piece is my favorite. Nobody thought to tell me about it when I moved here, so the first time I got that far north (headed to Dallas) I damn near wrecked the car because HOLY MOTHER OF GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?
posted by uberchet at 1:39 PM on February 15, 2016