Who Is That Face In The Water in North Beach’s Ocean Terrace Park?

French artist Prune Nourry’s “Reflection” is an ancient-looking sculpture of a head that sits on its side in the middle of a pond, as if left behind by a vanished civilization. The artwork is the centerpiece of the new Ocean Terrace Park in North Beach. (Photo by Thomas Loof, courtesy of M18 Public Relations)

At a newly completed park in Miami Beach, a new piece of public art is turning heads – literally.

Officially unveiled during a ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 30, “Reflection” is a giant stone sculpture in the shape of a woman’s head. Conceived and designed by French artist Prune Nourry, the artwork is the centerpiece of the Ocean Terrace Park in North Beach.

The new five-acre Ocean Terrace Park in North Beach has a new piece of art that’s 25 feet long and 8 feet high. (Photo by Thomas Loof, courtesy of M18 Public Relations)

Located along Ocean Terrace between 73rd and 75th streets, just north of the Miami Beach Bandshell, the new green space takes up what was once a street with parking on either side. It’s part of a larger development that will see a once-dilapidated strip of beachside hotels updated with a hotel, a 75-unit condo tower, and newly-built retail and restaurants.

Inspired by the likes of Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the colossal Olmec heads of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, “Reflection” is meant to resemble an ancient ruin given over to nature. The head sits on its side in the middle of a pond, as if left behind by a vanished civilization, with a tree growing out of the upper side.

According to the artist, the gridded brickwork that forms the statue references Carl Jung’s concept of collective unconsciousness, the idea that all human beings share an instinctual understanding of certain symbols and ideas. And as the title implies, its reflection in the water creates an optical illusion that allows the full face to be seen.

Prune Nourry’s “Reflection” was unveiled in October in the recently completed Ocean Terrace Park on Miami Beach. (Photo by Thomas Loof, courtesy of M18 Public Relations)

But who is that face in the water?

The statue actually uses the likeness of a real person: Nellie Locust, a Cherokee woman who was stationed in Miami during World War II as part of the SPARs, the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve. The process that culminated in her likeness being used for “Reflection” began when Nourry learned about the Biscayne Bay House of Refuge, a Coast Guard station that stood on a site adjacent to Ocean Terrace until it was destroyed in the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926.

Learning about the station is what convinced Nourry to weave in reference to the SPARs, women recruited into the Coast Guard in order to compensate for the lack of male servicemen available during World War II. She contacted a historian, Donna Vojvodich, who specialized in the SPARs, and while searching through photos of the SPARs she had provided, she found one with an enticing signature: “Sincerely, Nellie.”

Prune Nourry designed “Reflection,” a giant stone sculpture in the shape of a woman’s head that now has a home in North Beach. (Photo by Franklin Burger)

“When I picked her portrait, I didn’t yet know her story, but I was drawn to her by the message and her face on that black and white picture,” says Nourry.

Originally from Vinita, Oklahoma, Locust was one of several indigenous women in the Sooner Squadron and earned the rank of Yeoman First Class in the Coast Guard. She joined the Coast Guard in 1943, training in Palm Beach, and served at stations in Fort Pierce and Miami. She died in 1947 at the age of 26 from an illness.

After selecting the photo, Nourry contacted Locust’s family to secure permission to use her likeness. The sculpture was assembled on site using locally fabricated 3D printed concrete blocks before Nourry provided the finishing touches to make it appear more weathered.

Though the piece is Nourry’s first public art commission in North America, the artist’s work has been exhibited extensively across the world. Her installation “Terracotta Daughters,” which featured female versions of the famous terracotta warriors of Xi’an, was toured around the world and eventually interred in China. And next year the artist will mount a show at the Petit Palais in Paris.

Raymond Jungles, the landscape architect in charge of the park, says Prune Nourry’s “Reflection” fit in well with the scale of the park. (Photo courtesy of M18 Public Relations)

The artist earned the Ocean Terrace commission after Raymond Jungles, the landscape architect in charge of the park, saw her work at the home of another client, the nightlife impresario and restaurateur David Grutman. Jungles says he was enticed by the opportunity to enhance a neighborhood he already knew quite well.

“I used to be a lifeguard when I was 19, right there,” he says. “It was always a special place to me.”

According to the architect, it was another of Nourry’s pieces, “Anima” from 2015, that inspired the idea to reflect the sculpture’s face in the pond.

“It’s on this huge beach with this huge ocean and horizon line just beyond it, so we wanted something that had some real impactful scale,” he says. “I figured if we reflected the piece, we could get twice as much for the price of one.”

The artist created the statue in the likeness of a real person: Nellie Locust, a Cherokee woman who was stationed in Miami during World War II as part of the SPARs, the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve. (Photo by Thomas Loof, courtesy of M18 Public Relations)

For Nourry, whose work frequently incorporates references to unseen women throughout history, the piece’s resonance goes deeper. The opportunity to honor Locust, the SPARs, and their role in the fabric of Miami’s history is significant.

“As a woman artist, or maybe just an artist, I feel very touched by the point of view we can have on history and how, in the end, it’s written by human beings. And some people will be highlighted, some won’t, but history is made by so many people whose names are forgotten.”

WHAT: “Reflection” at Ocean Terrace Park

 WHEN: Open daily from sunrise to 10 p.m.

 WHERE: 73rd Street and Collins Avenue, Miami Beach

COST: Free

 INFORMATION: 305-673-7730 or miamibeachfl.gov

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