Giant rooster draws stares

A 10-foot-tall rooster with big silver-balled eyes, a red cape and machetes on its hind claws greets everyone that walks into Hanes Art Center’s side lobby.

The sculpture is a crowd-stopper, if not a traffic-stopper, as it occupies a large amount of the John and June Allcott Gallery.

The gallery houses this rooster and additional photography by Florida-born Cuban-American artist Gabriel Martinez, who lectured at UNC earlier this month about his work.   

The photos are a selection from one of Martinez’s series, and they display men’s legs and feet.

All from the knee down, the photos show feet set upon various surfaces and interiors.

“All the photos are of heterosexual men,” said Chloe Tham, a junior studio art major who is an assistant at the gallery. “He does a lot of sexual connotations in his artwork.”

They are self-portraits of heterosexual men who were given lubricant and porn and were left to complete the portrait after Martinez set up a camera for them.

The portraits are meant to represent male desire fulfilled, but only from the knees down, he said.

Martinez also included Guerrero, a large fighting rooster, in the exhibition.

The entire statue had to be shipped by U-Haul in pieces and was assembled on site.

“It just grew and grew and took on a life of its own,” Martinez said.

“I love the idea of it growing out of the gallery and taking on a life as its own.”

Its cape is made of traditional Quinceañera ball gowns.

Martinez said the statue fuses his memories of childhood in Miami with the macho culture surrounding cockfighting.

Trained in photography, Martinez usually works in that medium, but said he also creates other works, such as this statue.

“The response has been extremely positive,” said Roxana Perez-Mendez, the director of the gallery and an art professor, of people’s response to the rooster.

“It is an impressive piece in its size and visual force. It is heroic, stoic, demanding and intimidating at the same time.”

Perez-Mendez said it is always good if work confronts you in unexpected ways.

Part of the gallery’s three-tiered mission is to exhibit the work of professional artists. The next exhibit, featuring Clifford Owens, opens Nov. 3.

Students usually seem confused when they first see the statue.

“Why a huge rooster with a red cape?” asked Julia DaSilva, a freshman biology major.

DaSilva said she is impressed by the size and stature of the rooster but doesn’t understand it.

“Why those machetes?” she said. “It’s impressive, definitely, but makes me wonder why the red cape and machetes. Especially the machetes.”



Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.