George Segal, Walk, Don’t Walk, 1976

Narrator: Walk, Don’t Walk. Walk, Don’t Walk. George Segal included a real street sign in this sculpture—something we see every day. Take a look at the people standing underneath the sign. To make these figures, Segal used plaster-soaked medical bandages, which he wrapped right onto real people’s clothes, faces, and bodies. When the bandages harden he’d peel them off, and shape them into molds that he filled with plaster to make a sculpture. This means that these figures’ eyes, noses, and mouths come directly from real people’s features. But there’s almost no color, which gives them a kind of ghostly, anonymous feeling. Can you tell what’s on their minds? Do you think they’re doing anything special? Segal paid close attention to the way people walked around cities—he thought they seemed like they were hypnotized.