Pioneer Plaza
Dallas, Texas

Taken during the DART to Art, Rail & Ride

Bronze Fly at Pioneer Plaza, Dallas, Texas

The giant bronze sculpture of a cattle drive at Pioneer Plaza in Dallas is a very popular tourist attraction. Hordes of snap-happy folks mill around posing while raising their phones to get something to upload. The stationary wave of metal cattle forever guided by three cowboys is an impressive bit of public art – one that simultaniously awes the throng while reinforcing every Dallas Stereotype (cattle, cowboys, size, tackiness, gaudy, cliche) in the book.

When I visit I always climb to the cowboy on the top of the rise (that the herd of Longhorns is plunging from – down and across a draw) to look at something very small on the hidquarters of his horse. There is a bronze horsefly stuck there – a tiny detail donated by the sculptor to the more observant art fan.

I must not be the only one. The patina is worn fron the little fly-shaped lump of metal – giving it a virgin bronze color. The rubbing hands of crowds of tourists keep the horsefly gleaming in the afternoon sun.