Giant Ketchup Bottle Pops Up in City Hall Park

The Public Art Fund Strikes Again If you were passing by City Hall Park last Wednesday, you may have witnessed Mayor Michael Bloomberg casually eating popcorn in front of a 30-foot-tall ketchup bottle. Rest assured, your tap water has not been contaminated. Bloomberg was simply there to give the inaugural speech for Common Ground, the Public Art Fund's newest exhibition. Centered around the themes of public space and monuments, the exhibition features the works of 10 international artists and can be found in City Hall Park until Nov. 30. In his brief speech, Mayor Bloomberg commented on "Daddies Ketchup," Paul McCarthy's 30-foot-tall sculpture, hoping that such works of art would "make us think and encourage us to laugh." On a slightly more serious note, curator Nicholas Baume said the exhibition was "an homage to the power and potential of the spaces we share, our common ground." Text by Laurent Berstecher. Photos by RYAN MCCUNE/ PatrickMcMullan.com [caption id="attachment_47030" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Justin Matherly"](http://nypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/picture3.jpg)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_47029" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Daddies Ketchup by Paul McCarthy"](http://nypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/picture21.jpg)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_47027" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Choir"](http://nypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/picture-1.jpg)[/caption]