A Pigeon Named Dinosaur Will Sit on the High Line

Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll find out about a giant featherless bird that will land on the High Line in Manhattan before long. We’ll also get details on a pretrial hearing in the criminal fraud case against former Representative George Santos.

Credit…Rendering courtesy of Iván Argote and the High Line

Its name is Dinosaur. It looks like an omnipresent New Yorker, a pigeon. But Dinosaur the pigeon is closer in size to the Tyrannosaurus rex in “Jurassic Park” than to the usual feathered city dwellers.

Dinosaur the pigeon has no feathers and will not peck at birdseed on the ground — or at anything else. It is an aluminum art installation that will tower over the High Line Plinth, at West 30th Street and 10th Avenue. Cecilia Alemani, the director and chief curator of High Line Art, said that Dinosaur “will add great wit to the skyline of New York.”

Dinosaur is not the only animal installation that is headed to Manhattan. Next month a herd of full-size Indian elephants will take up residence in the Meatpacking district at the invitation of the area’s business improvement district. The elephants were made by Indigenous artisans in India from Lantana camara, a flowering shrub plant that is considered an invasive species there.

It took Dinosaur awhile to be chosen for its perch. Iván Argote, the artist who created it, first submitted a proposal in 2020 — among 80 that arrived for the third High Line Plinth commission. The High Line opened the proposals to public comments and said that Argote’s “proved polarizing,” prompting “strong feelings” of affection or disgust. In announcing that Dinosaur had been selected for the fourth High Line Plinth and would spend 18 months there, the High Line said that “Dinosaur reverses the typical power dynamic between bird and human.”