When this art installation first appeared on 118 Avenue in Edmonton, there was quite a bit of delighted chatter on the NextDoor app. The local people were both intrigued and amused. Some were a little bewildered asking “Have you seen the giant beans?” and “What are they?” and “What are they for?”.
One of the delights of living here is that the Arts on the Avenue Edmonton Society, a non-profit charitable organization, brings us interesting art works every year. This year they have outdone themselves. I have previously posted a blog about the Walking Figures installation, and here today is Love Your Bean by Cosimo Cavallero.
The art work is designed to be intriguing and to invite touching. The artist suggests that we allow ourselves to be lead by our senses. The description provided by Arts on the Avenue Edmonton is: “The beans are whimsical, joyful, interactive, and a little bit unsettling as they seduce and dwarf their viewers by their sweetness and smooth form.”
Cosimo Cavallero was born in Montreal and is now based in the United States where he recently built a cheese wall along the border with Mexico. I love that! And, I love Edmonton’s beans, too. As part of the installation a large dreary grey wall was painted bright green, so that even when the beans have gone I will still be glad for the green wall and I will remember the beans.
Snowbird of Paradise 
I would definitely touch those beans 🤣😜
Yes, even in the cold weather, it feels good to touch them.
Oh Anne, as I enjoy the sculpture in Edmonton that you are sharing, I am reminded of the sculpture in downtown SJ kind of near the Fairmont (if I recall at all). It is supposed to be a special sort of animal/reptile from Mexico I believe and was created by a famous artist I was told. Sorry I am being so vague. Art is open to interpretation and this piece has certainly been interpreted. Everything from a coiled snake to a pile of dog droppings. The name begins with a Q but I don’t recall it now. I think your Arts on the Avenue has better taste!
I have seen that sculpture. You may be thinking of Quetzalcoatl and/or Coatlicue, the mother of gods with a skirt of snakes. The last time I saw that I thought that the head was missing and I wondered if it was supposed to look like that or if the head had been cut off somehow.
I’m glad you enjoy the Edmonton sculptures. I do, too. They aren’t always well-received, but they keep showing up anyway!
Yes, you know of it. It’s been so long since I was up close and personal, so to speak, that I have forgotten details. Sorry to say, I simply was not impressed enough to remember much about it. However it has lasted in this graffiti prone City and that says a lot!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/quetzalcoatl-sculpture-park-god
OMG, you found the perfect article! It explains the situation back in the early ’90’s so well. I can laugh now but when the unveiling took place, the City was appalled. We spent that much money on a pile of poo? At that time it was a lot of money.
What did they feel like?
Very smooth. And cold!
Cool beans. Why can’t I ever come up with an installation concept that is as simple as this one? Big hugs to you.
I wonder where artists get their ideas all the time!
The banana duct taped on the gallery wall last year roundabout this time was I think the summit of all “keep it simple” concepts.
And thumbing the nose to the traditional art world!
Had to have been Swiss cheese . . . 🤣 Where is it? We need a photo! 🙏
I don’t understand. What was Swiss cheese?
The wall on the southern border 🤠
Oh, I see! I really don’t know, but I’ll see what I can find out?
Not Swiss cheese, but some rather smelly curd bricks.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.5073703/this-canadian-born-artist-is-building-a-wall-of-cheese-along-the-u-s-mexico-border-1.5073710.