BABY

Baby, David Cerny, 1994

At 8.5 ft. tall, crawling on its hands and knees and about 11.5 ft. long this baby is of the proud father, David Cerny. The head is over-sized, alien-esque, without facial features, grotesquely caved-in revealing a blank technological screen.

Before finding their final home Cerny’s Baby was well traveled. The sculpture was first presented in 1994 at the Beyond Believe exhibition at the Chicago Museum of Modern Art. Later it traveled with the art exhibit across the United States for over two years, until 1997. Then the sculpture was apart of a 1997 Kyjev exhibition in the Ukraine. In 1999 the piece was caste into fiberglass and exhibited on the Czech embassy in London. This cast would be the first of 9 others.

In 2000 the babies crawled back to Prague where they were temporarily attached to the Zizkov TV Tower’s pillars. The sculptures were admired by many and were returned in 2001 as a permanent installation.

The Žižkov Television Tower is a uniquely-designed tower built in Prague between 1985 and 1992. The tower is 216 meters (709 feet) high. Like many examples of Communist-era architecture in Central and Eastern Europe, the TV tower is generally resented by the locals. It’s considered a blemish within the city as its height reaches the highest point among Prague’s cityscape. Of course official criticism during Communism and its construction was impossible

Rumors have circulated that the tower was planned to be used to jam incoming western radio and television transmissions and that it had a potential use as a communications facility for Warsaw Pact forces in the event of an attack on (or attack by) NATO.

Now the TV tower broadcasts radio, television and phone transmissions, and is the home of Cerny’s 10 babies. They crawl among the pillars and satellites as if they’ve returned to their technological hive. Their heads hollow, giving the thought of children being raised by technological advances rather than parental figures.