Photo: Carl Stevens/ WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — If you've noticed a giant sculpture of a boat on Boston's City Hall Plaza, don't get too attached to it. It'll be set on fire and burned to the ground on Sept. 12.
Sculptor Adela Goldbard was commissioned to build the boat as part of the Boston Public Art Triennial.
"We're using traditional Mexican-style pyrotechnics," Goldbard said. "And so this is kind of a festive but also battle-like scene, [a] theatrical scene, where the ship is going to be burned in effigy.
According to the BPAT, the sculpture is a quarter-scale replica of a colonial-era sailing ship made out of invasive reeds. The three-part performance on Sept. 12 will represent "a fictionalized 'first encounter' between Indigenous people and European colonists."
Goldbard said the performance is not as risky as it might seem.
"The pyrotechnician that we hired for this project is very professional," Goldbard said. "He has worked other times on different projects in the Boston area, so he knows everything about regulations. We have all the permits in place and we'll also protect City Hall Plaza so it doesn't get damaged during the performance."
WBZ NewsRadio's Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) reports.