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MFA Debuts Breathing Flower Installation On Front Lawn

BOSTON (CBS) -- The Museum of Fine Arts is celebrating the beginning of spring with a new, public art installation on their front lawn--a big inflatable flower that moves as if it's breathing.

"It's not the kind of sculpture most folks expect to see on the lawn of the MFA, of a traditional institution," said Al Miner, assistant curator, Contemporary Art at the MFA.

The piece is called "Breathing Flower," and if you watch it move, you can see why.

The sculpture, by Seoul, South Korea-based artist Choi Jeong Hwa, is part of an exhibit coming to the MFA on April 3, called Megacities Asia. The exhibit will feature 11 artists from rapidly-developing cities in Asia who deal with urbanization through large-scale sculptures and installations.

"Choi Jeong Hwa finds beauty and grandeur in urban appetites, with an installation comprised of cheap plastic objects from markets and 99-cent stores," according to the MFA's page for the exhibit.

Miner said the piece is meant to call attention to the fact that the "natural" area here, like in most cities, is actually landscaped by humans--and that artificial things like this flower can live forever and outlast the beauty of even a real flower.

"Choi Jeong Hwa is interested in sort of collapsing the status between what's fancy and high-art, and what's part of the every day," said Miner. "He's particularly interested in bringing together the fake and the natural, the artificial and the real, into one space."

He said he hoped the public will take joy from the piece.

"I think that's important to the artist," said Miner. "This is an uplifting piece, that really brings attention to the fact that there are wonderful things around every unexpected corner."

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