ReALIzing Muhammad Ali

When the Greatest of All Time wants a sculpture commissioned, he doesn’t want an ordinary bronze statue. He wants, and gets, one of the most unique sculptures of all time.

Take a look at this sculpture of Muhammad Ali, commissioned by his wife from artist Michael Kalish. Originally imagining Ali carved from stone, Kalish decided to do something more fitting the Champ. So he created this architectural masterpiece using 1,300 custom created speedbags in two colors and three sizes. (More pics after the jump.)

Kalish suspended the speedbags from over 5 miles of steel cable attached to an aluminum tube frame. If you look at it from the sides, you just see a collection of free-floating bags. But when viewed from the front, they combine into a 3-D portrait of Ali taken in 1977 before a fight with Ernie Shavers.

“ReALIze” took over two years to complete, and made its debut on March 25th in LA. And you’ll have more than one chance to see it. It’ll be traveling to New York and Miami, before it heads to Asia and Europe in 2012. Can’t make it to those cities? You can see more pics and a video of the construction at ReALIzeAli.com