Once the Praetorian Building, now a dusty, empty lot, soon to be … a giant eyeball. Photo by Jerome Weeks from upstairs at Sol Irlandes

The Nasher Xchange has been parking various kinds of public artworks around the city, celebrating the Nasher Sculpture Center’s tenth anniversary. Now it’ll be filling a temporary sculpture garden across Main Street from The Joule hotel — 1607 Main, where the Praetorian Building, erected in 1909, once stood until the Joule’s owners, the Headington Cos., bought it and tore it down.

First up is artist Tony Tasset, actually a multi-media artist, but he’s perhaps best known for his giant eyeballs (not in his head — his sculptures, although they’re based on his own eyes, even though he presumably imagines the veins in the back of the eyeball, right?), particularly because of the 30-foot-tall one he’s got staring out at downtown Chicago (below).

The Dallas eyeball is expected to take 10 days to install, and it’s only the first of the artworks Headington will plant there — for however long it takes to decide how it’s going to develop the site.

Photo from Laughingsquid</em>.