Flamingos and voting booths stretch 30-feet tall outside a Florida elections office. (Photo by Robin Hill (c)
A 30-foot sculpture of flamingos and voting booths created by a native New Yorker stands outside a Florida elections office—a bold reminder of the power of democracy.
Matthew Mazzotta, a 47-year-old artist, created “VOTE!,” now an installation outside the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections building in West Palm Beach, Fla. The sculpture, commissioned by the county government and revealed in July, features four voting booths and three flamingos made of painted fiberglass and stainless steel.
Mazzotta, who lives in Canton, about 200 miles northwest of Albany near the Canadian border, designed “VOTE!” in 2021. He said his intention for the project was to bring greater visibility to what happens inside the Supervisor of Elections building, which includes year-round voter education in addition to the collecting and counting of votes at election time. He chose to center flamingos, the long-legged aquatic birds native to Florida, to achieve these goals.
Much like humans, the flamingos in the sculpture reveal their quirks as they exercise their civic duty: Two survey their surroundings as another appears deep in a decision-making trance. In Mazzotta’s words, each flamingo “votes their own heart”—just as citizens are called to do with every election cycle. He purposely leaves the booth second from left empty, as if to ask onlookers, who is next?
For Mazzotta, the flamingos represent all life affected by political actions that ripple across the globe. “When we vote, we also vote for those who cannot,” he said in a phone interview. Mazzotta designed the installation as a larger gesture than just last year’s presidential elections, “to show that voting is not an isolated process, but rather something that reminds us that we’re all interconnected.”
A selection committee picked Mozzotta’s proposal from 75 applications submitted for the project. The county approved $796,000 for all costs, from design through installation.
“‘VOTE!’ is an excellent example of public art that encourages civic engagement,” Elayna Toby Singer, administrator of the Palm Beach County Art in Public Places program, said in an email. “Its whimsical nature is designed to make the voting process feel more inviting.”
Mazzotta, who grew up in rural, northern New York State, earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001 and a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in 2009. In addition to his public art projects, he holds multiple research and fellowship positions, including with the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City and Harvard University.
“VOTE!” isn’t Mazzotta’s first commissioned work to feature flamingos or to prompt passersby to see themselves as part of a bigger world. In a floor-to-ceiling sculpture titled “HOME,” installed in Tampa International Airport’s main terminal, a flamingo’s head extends down from the ceiling as if it were peering underwater.
A floor-to-ceiling sculpture titled “HOME” was installed in Tampa International Airport’s main terminal. (Credit: Chad Baumer Photography)
“You’re brought into their habitat with the rippling water above,” said Mazzotta, referring to the reflective panels overhead that mimic waves and are central to the immersive artwork. As with his past public art projects, both “VOTE!” and “HOME” engage playful aesthetics to invite people to pause and reflect on the universal themes the works explore.
Mazzotta said that firsthand experience of the extensive review process for permanent public works reminds him of the importance of engaging rather than alienating communities. His years as an activist, participating in political protests, also shaped his approach to “VOTE!” and other public art projects. After years of making protest signs designed for quick, direct communication, he began to ask himself: “How do you draw more people in?”
The installation has received widespread praise, including from Gregg Weiss, who represents District 2 on the Board of County Commissioners.
“You know what I love about this?” he wrote in an email. “It takes what could be just another government building and makes it totally Palm Beach County. These flamingos are doing double duty of making people smile while reminding us that voting is the bedrock of our democracy.”
With the 2024 election now past, Mazzotta is looking toward the future.
“I’m thinking about how we can unite beyond this moment,” he said.
About the author(s)
Irene Bantigue is a freelance journalist and M.S. student at Columbia Journalism School, specializing in arts, culture, and immigrant communities.