Rusting Robot Sleeps in Alabama

A public art piece at the University of Alabama represents the end of the iron industry in the surrounding region, portrayed a as a sleeping, rusted robot.

1 minute read

June 24, 2009, 12:00 PM PDT

By Tim Halbur


"Goldie", as the art piece is known, symbolizes the closing of Birmingham's Sloss Furnaces in 1972 and America's passage into the post-industrial era. According to the artist Joe McCreary, the robot is not so much dead or sleeping as turned off.

'The robot's been decommissioned, shut off,' McCreary says. 'It's not needed anymore.'

Monday, June 22, 2009 in University of Alabama

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