Friday, April 28, 2006

Holy Cows!


Do you know the Cow Parade? If you live in New York, Edinburgh, Sydney, Barcelona... you probably do because this event already took place there. But in Paris, it's a first. The idea is simply to ask several artists to turn fiberglass cows into modern art sculptures and to display them throughout the city. The result is stunning. In Paris there are about 100 cows (I photographed 8 more here). They will be sold at the end of June to the benefit of charitable causes. More here.

Update. These cows are also shown on Buenos Aeres Daily Photo and on Manila Daily Photo.

80 comments:

  1. How cool is that! I love it!!! Thanks Eric for posting additional pictures!

    In SF, we have done the same thing with hearts, although there are not many hearts left anymore but there are a few around if you look carefully.

    http://www.heartsinsf.com/project.html

    Cows are more fun, though, and I'm sure they'd be very successful here. We'll be waiting :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. In New Orleans, they had fish, and in Lake Charles, Louisiana, they had gators. With funny titles-- for example, a litigator outside a law firm (with legal wig, robe and portfolio), and the airport had an avigator complete with silk scarf, goggles and biplane. You can see them here:

    http://www.gatorsonthegeaux.com/gatorvision.htm

    ReplyDelete
  3. holy cowsss!! I like this one best!! moooo....!

    ReplyDelete
  4. In Iowa (where there are more pigs than people) they had pigs!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, we've had the cows and lately we have turtles. The creativity in the wide variety of styles and colors is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. In Seattle, we celebrate with pigs, too.
    I wonder why it isn't salmon or orcas?
    Une bonne vache! (Did I get that right? My French is awful.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. about five years ago i saw the cows in brussels, though i had no idea what they were for.
    i kept wandering around the city, bumping into cows and wondering what the connection was!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow!! Nice shot! Did you get down low for this one?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Chicago had cows the summer of 1999. It was great fun for both tourists and residents. There were so many cows that the city printed a map to help people find all of them. My favorite was in front of a poster shop on Michigan Avenue. It was covered with tiny replicas of posters. So clever. They were sold in the fall, and the money went to various charities.

    Here's a link:

    http://www.chicagotraveler.com/cows_on_parade.htm

    ReplyDelete
  10. The cows are adorable! We don't have a cow parade in Toronto. I'm officially jealous :(

    ReplyDelete
  11. seems like every city now-a-days does this: Cincinnasty did pigs, Nashville got corn-fused and did catfish and then guitars...
    However, I find this cow cute and out of the ordinary!!!
    En plus je suis un peu etonnee que les francais trouve ca amusant...c'est plutot un truc american...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oooh, I love the black and gold one and the all white one! Those are great.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This happened in Washington DC as well except that we had donkeys and elephants in tribute to the two political parties that rule this city: democrats and republicans.

    We also had a bunch of pandas on our college campus that they brought in from another city....

    Interesting concept and I like that they are sold for charitable causes.

    "Oh, la vache!" :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love the cows, I hope they are still around when we get there in October!

    ReplyDelete
  15. here is one website that shows some of the donkeys and elephants that were in Washington DC......

    http://jophan.org/safari/

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gee Eric, you're "milking" this one for all it's worth. Good for you, but I wouldn't "udder" a word to anyone about your propensity to be at the right place at the right time "beef-or" all the comments are in. It could be too e-moo-tional!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh yeah, and as usual, the photos are awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  18. This is obviously an opera moo, singing for its milk!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ok, ok, I can't resist Eric...you mention that "In Paris there are about 100 cows". How did you count them?

    With a Cowculator I suppose?

    ReplyDelete
  20. groan michael! I've never actually seen Edinburgh's cow parade...must look out for it!

    Mes élèves de 13 ans à Edimbourg viennent de finir un audio-guide podcast de la ville d'Edimbourg en français. Cliquez ici pour écouter. Laissez un message...ils seront ravis de lire vos commentaires!

    ReplyDelete
  21. This one is my favorite too. I saw cows in Zurich a few years ago. I wonder if it was the same kind of thing.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Michael is now our official PDP punster, don't you think? Well, he had inspiration; afterall, this IS a mooving piece of art. ;^)
    -Kim

    ReplyDelete
  23. Michael, I cow to you superior knowledge.

    All the cows around here are mooving targets, and you have to watch where you put your feet if you are after trying to get photograph.

    Great image Eric.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hier Gg avait dit... "Moi qui m'attendait à voir une grosse vache aujourd'hui… "
    > Eric. Non, je n'avais pas prévu de me prendre en photo aujourd'hui...

    I didn't you changed your motorbike for a tricycle…
    ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Sydney with a y thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  26. How fun! Most cities have these kinds of parade, eh? Not yet in my city. Such a cute picture there, Eric :)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Oups I didn't intended to be anonymous !
    Mais Eric, tu m'auras certainement reconnu plus haut !!!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Last summer was a Cow Parade here in Bucharest, very nice!!!

    ReplyDelete
  29. haha, Eric, this cow selling milk and the white one in the page are surely very funny...

    ReplyDelete
  30. Quite a popular theme--Racine Wisconsin has done dogs and cats, and my former home town of Grand Forks, North Dakota did--what else?--Forks!

    Great way to showcase artists, and get people walking around town (and patronizing local shops, instead of the mall.)

    Maybe frogs will be next? ;O)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Michael, of course it's an awesome photo...Eric wouldn't give us a bum "steer." Your puns are "moo-sic" to my ears. I've got no "beef" with them at all!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Single, you didn't have cows, but you had MOOSE, remember? http://www.toronto.ca/moose/home.htm with the "Moose in the City" project. I don't remember any such project here, though we sure have a lot of delivery triporteurs like the one the Parisian cow is driving. Think they deliver more beer than milk though...

    Il n'y a pas de vaches folles, j'espère?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Merci, ça me donne une idée sortie ce weekend :-)

    ReplyDelete
  34. miami beach also did this project, with flamingos of course!

    http://www.miamibeachfl.gov/newcity/depts/arce/flamingos_pages/flamingo_list.asp

    ReplyDelete
  35. oops- try this link:

    http://tinyurl.com/penkw

    ReplyDelete
  36. Well, you know things are bad as an actor when a photo of a cow gets just as many comments as your picture. Sorry Tom!

    ReplyDelete
  37. I LOVE these cows! In San Jose a couple of years ago we had sharks (for our hockey team) and they were auctioned off as a fundraiser. I like cows more though. :)

    Many thanks, Eric. PDP is a lovely treat each day.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Well, Michael you lait it on thick, were you trying to see how many jokes you could creme into one sentence? You'll have to vache your step, veau I think Eric doesn't mind, although it's a little cuir that he hasn't complained.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Now I'm impressed Ham. I could never have done cow puns, in french, within an English sentence. You take the prize!

    ReplyDelete
  40. When I'm walking in Union Square here in NYC, I sometimes pass by one of the cows that somebody bought after NYC's Cow Parade. It always brings a smile to my face. It's in front of their apartment building.

    Thanks for posting the news about the Cow Parade in Paris. It is one more thing for me to see when I'm there in several weeks. Merci beaucoup, Eric!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Michael / Ham: I'm impressed too! Vachement impressionant!

    Here you go, guys, a few ASCII cows right here:

    http://tinyurl.com/re8l

    ReplyDelete
  42. (And besides, I , too, think it's kind of cool that a cow should get more comments than Tom Cruise! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  43. Eric, we had dinosaurs in Pittsburgh last summer. I think they had them for a charity auction, too.

    Michael, the cowculator joke was awful! But I loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Great :-)...i know the first thing i am going to see in two weeks !
    Thanks Eric.

    ReplyDelete
  45. i still do not know if the cow is funnie - tom cruis is funnie - or the comments are funnie. i think i will chose d. all of the above.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I just read in our papers today about the cow parade in Paris.I am from South Africa and it cought my eye because we also had such a parade in 2004/2005.The cows were on display in Johannesburg and Cape Town and then sold for charity.

    ReplyDelete
  47. yes, in Washington first we had the Party Animals (the donkeys & elephants) and then pandas. someone in my neighborhood bought a panda and put it in their front yard. I see it when I walk to the park.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Michael, Ham and Buzzgirl, great job!! What an entertaining little interlude this was! And, of course, thanks for the great photographic inspiration, Eric.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Hi Buzzgirl, I hope you don't mind, but I haven't been able to leave comments on your blog. Your trip to Paris sounds fantastic and the story about Eric is great! Glad someone finally got a picture of him!

    ReplyDelete
  50. P.S. Buzzgirl, I just went back to your blog and saw that you noticed that the commenting is quiet as well. I think you've turned on the monitoring option so you have to "approve" them before they show up...or deselect the option in Blogger. Hope that helps.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Je les ai même vu à Buenos Aires !
    J'aime beaucoup cette initiative.

    ReplyDelete
  52. I love it!
    You will be able to see my cows on
    www.aphotographerinparis.com
    (dayinparisblog)

    ReplyDelete
  53. Great photo! I saw the ones in New York, but this is the most original I've seen. Genius!

    ReplyDelete
  54. Buzzgirl: I agree with Michael. Comment moderation is a nice, handy feature to have, just in case, but it also discourages people to comment because it kills the spontaneity.

    ReplyDelete
  55. May I please add to the cow jokes??

    What do you call a masturbating cow?

    Beef-strokin-off

    Love the Photo!!

    ReplyDelete
  56. Michael, you were right. I'm a dork. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  57. You're not a dork...just a little problem with your cowments. They were almost as fun to read as your adventures.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Hello everyone, with 63 comments on this photo so far(not that I cownt...) I regret not to be able to answer everybody personnally.

    Thanks for all your comments, I love you all!

    ReplyDelete
  59. At last I have something to contribute, albeit a day late. I believe this whole craze started in the 1990s when New Mexico started an art competition to benefit local schools. Local artists created life-sized ponies and artists and children decorated them - from there a full-scale booming business was born. View these beautiful works of art or purchase figurines at
    http://www.trailofpaintedponies.com/originals_main.html

    ReplyDelete
  60. Holy cow! I haven't laughed this hard in ages! Thanks guys.

    ReplyDelete
  61. In Buffalo, NY, we had the same thing with buffalos, of course :)

    ReplyDelete
  62. And we had the same thing here in Stockholm last year! But they were all in the same shape, not original ones like this cow!

    Nice photo!

    ReplyDelete
  63. here in moscow it's the same! in the biggest shop in the city they have installed those cows, which i actually find quite ugly... i don't know why but i find it bad tasted... may be the french cows look better :)

    ReplyDelete
  64. Okay, okay Megan...that one was bad. Here's one for the ladies:

    Q: Why can't men get mad cow disease?
    A: Because we're pigs.

    ReplyDelete
  65. I guess I'm not much of a lady, then, because I' thought Megan's joke was hilarious.

    Oink.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Ah, the cows are in Paris! They get around! Did anyone happen to see them in the opening ceremonies of the Torino olympics?

    Cow Parade does ultimately sell these beautified bovines to benefit selected charities, but sadly the CP corporation itself did not pay the Swiss sculptor who created the original model for the most widely used Cow Parade cow (the standing one). Pfff.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Tomate, I didn't say I did not like Megan's joke, just that it was a bad one! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  68. Oh my I'm glad I could be both humerous and controvertial. Thanks Michael & Tomate! Lots O'Laughs.

    Eric I think your photos are fabulous wish I could check them out more often!! Love the variety of photos.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Kansas City had one, too. Vancouver has a few killer whales and grizzly bears.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Michael, you mean when "bad" means "good?" ;)

    ReplyDelete
  71. TF - Yes, that's why I'm ALWAYS "good"! LOL

    ReplyDelete