Scrunched-Up Apple Sculptures Coming To Upper East Side Park

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The arrival of spring brings blossoming flowers, warmer weather, seasonal allergies — and, this year, the installation of several dozen miniature heads carved into dehydrated apples atop the fenceposts of Carl Schurz Park.

"Apple Heads," a project by artist Joanne Howard, will be installed at the beloved East Side park in early April and will remain in place through November, a Parks Department representative told a Community Board 8 committee Tuesday night.

The exhibition consists of 45 sculptures which Howard creates by carving human faces into apples and letting them dry out, causing them to "resemble wizened elders, with seemingly unique, human-like personalities," the Parks Department wrote in a presentation.

They will then be cast in bronze and screwed into fenceposts along East End Avenue near the park's main entrance, as well as along "Cherry Alley," which leads to the park's central garden. (The screws will not damage the fenceposts.)

Howard told the board that the three-inch-tall heads are "subtle," and will likely go unnoticed by many park visitors.

"I think of them as little guardians of nature, protectors of the trees," Howard said. "I think there’s something whimsical about them."

Carl Schurz Park was chosen as the apple heads' home because of its elegant landscaping, according to Elizabeth Masella, the department's senior public art coordinator. The heads will be placed "at a considerable distance" from the Black Lives Matter vigil that has been on view at the park since last summer.

Board members reacted warmly to the installation, praising its uniqueness.

"One of them reminds me of my ex-wife," one member cracked.