Sphere within Sphere
Sfera con Sfera by Arnaldo Pomodoro
I took this photo on a February day outside the United Nations headquarters building in New York City. This bronze sculpture was created by Italian sculptor, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and given to the United Nations as gift from Italy in 1996. It is called Sfera con Sfera, meaning Sphere within Sphere. From this angle, you can get a partial view of the internal sphere.
Sphere within Sphere sculptures by Pomodoro can be found at Trinity College in Dublin, the Vatican Museums, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the University of California at Berkeley and other locations around the world.
What do you think Pomodoro was trying to represent by this sculpture? What does it symbolize to you?
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Beautiful photo and a wonderful piece of art! I love how reflective it is. I have no idea what Pomodoro was trying to represent but I really like it.
Thanks, Laurel. I really like this work, too. I haven’t been able to find anything (even on the U.N. site about it represents. I was speculating that the UN might think it represents their attempts (as the large outer sphere) to protect people around the world (the smaller sphere inside). Don’t know.
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LOve this shot. I can’t tell you what it symbolizes but, I never knew they had such cool stuff in NYC !
Thanks! There’s lots of cool stuff in NYC!
Wow, nice shot! Hi Cathy, it looks broken. Ummm. .. I reckon the broken bit is lying on the ground here-
http://holesinmysoles.blogspot.com/2011/01/coffee-real-coffee-in-ethiopia-new-life.html
Check out the photo of the new born calf, and what they’re using for a water trough.
LOL>
Beautiful shot, Cathy. I have no idea what it represents. Perhaps the fact that the earth is round, and through that roundness we are all connected. (my take on it)
Thanks for posting to Travel Photo Thursday!
Thanks for your take on it, Nancie. Something to think about, isn’t it?
What a gorgeous photo – made all the better because it’s beautiful winter sunlight. It looks like the branches of the tree are attached to the sphere.
Julia
I thought the same thing about the branches. Glad you liked it.
I love the way you have caught the reflections in the sphere. The way you have taken the photo opened up some interesting discussions on the meaning and purpose of it. From broken but still functional to philosophical debates on true reflections vs only what we wish to see. However, I am not sure Pomodoro had any of that in mind when he made it. Still a nice sculpture.
Thanks so much for the compliment and your observations! It is something to think about, isn’t it?
that is a beautiful photo, the sculptor is really something
Thanks all for your comments. I’d like to see Pomodoro’s other Sphere within Sphere sculptures sometime, too. I’ve been to Trinity College and U.C Berkeley but sad to say I don’t recall seeing them. I’ll have to go back and take a look!
Very cool photo! It took me awhile to realize that the darker part is an opening and not a reflection of a tree.
Beautiful sculpture and nice photo of it. I guess I’ll go with “there’s so much to discover within the world.”
Wow – That is some piece of art. Don’t know why but to me it resembles that the world is broken but when I look at the reflections it give hope that the world can be repaired.
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