I’m sorry ma’am

There is this amazing art display in the Fourth and Madison Building. You can see it in the lobby on the 3rd Avenue side. Every year this display is put up before the holidays and I think they leave it up until February or so. Last year I happen to be waiting at the bus stop when they were taking these down, so I was able to see how they transported these objects. I have been very curious about how they are moved because they are basically large glass balls with spikes poking out all over. This picture doesn’t give the sense of the scale of these pieces. I think the smallest one is about 3 feet in diameter, including the spikes. You could be impaled by one of these pieces if it was not tethered to the ceiling correctly. It looks really cool from below but alas I have no photos of that view.

I have been wanting to get a picture of these and I was lucky enough to go past the building tonight while the doors were still open. Unfortunately, it was late so the guards were out in force. Well, one guard was out in force. He yelled up from the bottom floor “ma’am, there is no photography allowed in this building. If you want to take photos, you have to get permission from the building management.” What?? Okay, I said. I didn’t take a photo yet, as I so kindly explained to him. He kept repeating himself, and even came upstairs to tell me again, there was no photography allowed. He was very nice about it, and wasn’t being a jerk at all. He just kept repeating himself. I kept asking him, “I can’t take photos from inside the building, correct?” “Yes, that is correct, ma’am. If you want to take photos inside the building you will need permission.” I made doubly sure that I understood and he knew I was asking about only taking pictures from inside the building. So I promptly went outside and took my pictures. Take that mister security officer!