A life-size sculpture of a man on a South End residential balcony blurs the distinction between public and private art, delights (and sometimes confuses) passersby, and conjures up a bit of New York from the 1930s.

You know that iconic photo of 11 construction workers sitting and eating on a girder high above Manhattan? A sculptor rendered it in three dimensions and a South End art collector displays one of the sculpted workers on her terrace. First the photo, then the sculptor, then the collector....

The photo depicts real construction workers on the sixty-ninth floor of the RCA Building, but was probably staged to publicize the skyscraper before completion. Called "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" on "New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam," it has been credited to Charles C. Ebbets, although the licensing agency that owns the image calls the photographer unknown. The photo was taken in 1932 and appeared in The New York Herald Tribune.

The photo so struck a Sicilian born sculptor, Sergio Furnari, that he has recreated it in various media. He sells individual construction workers five inches tall.

South End resident Sue Ellerin commissioned a life-sized figure in 2004 to display on her fourth-floor balcony even before she moved into her condo. She wanted to bring "whimsy and humor" to an "imposing building," Atelier 505 on Tremont Street, next to the Boston Center for the Arts.

She has succeeded. People on the street point up to the figure, which is confidently looking over the railing, smiling slightly. Some think it's a real person at first. It is bronze colored but is probably made of fiberglass.

The worker is seated on his own girder behind the balcony railing. Ellerin would have preferred the worker to be perching on the railing itself, but the sculpture's configuration didn't allow it.

Ellerin, a Ph.D., is founder and president of STAT Resources, a marketing strategy and research company. She has served on museum boards of directors. Her apartment is filled with paintings and sculpture.

On another balcony, several feet away from the construction worker, stands a second sculpted figure, this one a nude woman with her back to the street. The balcony is also Ellerin's and that other sculpture is "Morning Conversation" by Allen Wynn. Despite the title, her two sculptures face away from each other and are not in conversation. It's the pedestrians on Tremont Street who converse about the art.

Ellerin's two sculptures are privately owned but on very public display. She hopes to sell her condo later this year - and that the buyer will keep the construction worker overlooking the South End. The lady is going with her.


Ken Bresler writes at www.ClearWriting.com.