Japanese artist Yutaka Sone carved this painstakingly detailed re-creation of Manhattan out of marble, referencing both Google Earth and primary photographic research conducted via helicopter rides over the city. It’s roughly two feet wide, eight feet long and three feet tall — and it’s probably incredibly heavy as a result.
The sculpture will be on exhibit in New York at David Zwirner Gallery starting next week. Read more about it over at Spoon & Tomago.
“Little Manhattan” reminds me a bit of the amazing miniature replicas of strategic French ports and cities that can be found at the Musée des Plans-Reliefs in Paris. I took a few photos of the exhibits there on one visit several years ago, but they barely do justice to the exquisite nature of those scale models, which were even more painstakingly created without the benefit of satellite imagery or helicopter rides.
You can see the handful of photos I took at the museum at this Flickr tag, and you can find out more about the museum at at Wikipedia.
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