For the past seven years, a huge sculpture by Red Grooms amplified the celebration at the Miami Marlins baseball stadium in Florida. Every time a player on the Major League Baseball team hit a home run, the artwork would light up, shooting fountains of water into the air as motorized marlins, seagulls, and flamingos danced. Recently, the team’s board decided to move the sculpture, titled Homer.
Last year, former New York Yankees star and new Marlins owner Derek Jeter proposed relocating Homer to a boardwalk just outside the stadium. He hopes to transform the space the sculpture once filled into a discounted ticket area to boost game attendance. The team’s board agreed with him. Jeter thinks that more people will have the opportunity to interact with the sculpture in the nearby public park—which will be called Art Walk.
In 2012, the team’s previous owner commissioned Grooms to create the seven-story sculpture for the indoor ballpark. Critics have argued that the work is too large and gaudy, and out of place in the stadium. But supporters view the work as lively and unique. Grooms strongly opposed its removal. The artist says the sculpture is site-specific, intended for the space just beyond the indoor stadium’s outfield. He argues that he made the artwork to serve its purpose in the stadium. “Moving Homer anywhere else is destroying it,” Grooms says. The artist also fears the work won’t withstand the elements in an outdoor park.
During the off season this year, workers disassembled the sculpture and removed it from the stadium. Within the next year, they will reinstall it on Art Walk.