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Arts & Entertainment

Public Art Field Guide: 'David, Haggit and Adoniyya'

It's the art that's tucked out of sight.

Pedestrians and tourists who happen upon Boaz Vaadia's piece of public art as they stroll through Rosslyn might become suddenly alarmed -- worried an innocent family had been cast in stone as they sat happily upon a shady bench.

Other onlookers might mistakenly assume that they have wandered into the ancient past: the Clarendon-Wilson corridor now a meandering Tigris and Euphrates, the buildings turned to temples, and the rising car exhaust actually the fumes of funeral pyres floating downstream.

Such are the magical and exotic qualities of Boaz Vaadia's work, inspiring the imaginations of many who gaze upon his art. "David, Haggit and Adoniyya" is no different, sitting captivatingly beneath the overhanging branches at 1300 N. 17th St.

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Made of carved and stacked slabs of bluestone (Vaadia's chosen medium), the statue blends in beautifully with its natural surroundings -- looking at home beneath the leaves and at peace among the flowers. Vaadia happened upon this method of construction when he realized the great abundance of bluestone that was at his fingertips when he first moved to New York City. At the time, the city was ripping up and replacing the then-bluestone sidewalks. And so Vaadia begin experimenting, using discarded edar poles as support beams.

For a young man who grew up on a farm in Isreal, the natural world was very important to Vaadia. Still coming to grips with living in a busy, concrete-filled city, using discarded natural stone and abandoned wood stakes helped Vaadia feel more at peace with the Earth.

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"There is a great respect to nature and a great inspiration from nature that brought about the style of my work," he told AskaNewYorker.com in 2008. Vaadia's studio is in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.

This statue, like most of Vaadia's work, is named for family and friends who were visiting him around the time of its construction. The stone piece was installed in Rosslyn in 1992 and funded by a partnership between Arlington County and real estate developers LaSalle Partners.

Next time you're strolling through Rosslyn, take a detour down 17th Street and get your picture taken with your new stone friends "David, Haggit and Adoniyya." Until next time, happy public art hunting.

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