A life of their own

Escaping the context of the traditional white-cube gallery, American artist Oscar Tuazon responds directly to the city's natural and artificial landscape through a series of three urban interventions collectively titled People.

Escaping the context of the traditional white-cube gallery, American artist Oscar Tuazon, known for his architectural installations, responds directly to the city's natural and artificial landscape through a series of three urban interventions collectively titled People in the recently completed green space in Brooklyn Bridge Park, designed by New York-based landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. Here, Tuazon creates a series of interrelated works that encourage participation with the outside world, much like his Whitney Biennial work For Hire, in which the artist constructed a structure out of commonplace materials such as stairways, doorjambs, window frames and shower stalls that participants were asked to navigate. Visitors could walk in and around the art-object, making the work become both sculpture as well as apparatus.

Commissioned by New York City's Public Art Fund, the non-for-profit arts organization that offers free exhibitions to the public within the urban environment of New York, People engages citizens through varied ways of use including sitting, touching, and playing, among others. Consisting of a fountain, a small room and a basketball hoop and handball wall, the three sculptures, dispersed at the Southern end of the park, are self-referential in language and design, while simultaneously responding to the surrounding context of the city itself. Large in scale, yet fitting the civic landscape, these selected works offer some perspective to the urban ethos of Manhattan while also referencing the iconic tall buildings that the city is so famously known for.

Made of cement, local trees — from nearby Dutchess County in New York's Hudson Valley — and found objects, the artist creates three sculptures that function in the realm of the everyday, far removed from the elitist notion "art". These works evoke a sense of familiarity and, possessing a tactile quality, they become more accessible as well. "I called the project People because to me the most interesting thing about the works isn't the objects themselves but this potential they have to operate in the everyday," Tuazón remarks, "the fact that each of these things will get used by innumerable people in ways that I can't anticipate or even imagine."

Left, <em>People</em>,
sugar maple tree, concrete, metal basketball backboard and hoop. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund. Right, <em>A Machine</em>,
red oak tree, concrete.
Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund — Left, *People*, sugar maple tree, concrete, metal basketball backboard and hoop. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund. Right, *A Machine*, red oak tree, concrete. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund

The works are massive in size when compared to the heights of the newly planted trees on the site, yet when compared to the monumental skyline they become relatable, almost human-scale. Juxtaposed with the existing landscape, each of the installations responds almost too effectively, becoming camouflaged within the surroundings. Here, Tuazon employs restraint, limiting elements and color and remaining minimal while working at such a large scale. This sense of restraint, demonstrated in application, is further enhanced through the exploration of such themes as permanence/temporal, artificial/natural, aesthetics/function, and individual/collective.

<em>Rain</em>, black oak tree, water pump.
Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund — *Rain*, black oak tree, water pump. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund

Each of the installations in People is distinct in its own right, functioning both as a singular object as well as part of a larger group. Using similar language in application and design Tuazon's pieces, strong enough to stand alone, produce the kind of relationship between user, object and surrounding city through not only visual similarities in material and form but also in their placement on the site. Each piece can be viewed from the location of another. The continual sightline of the works further perpetuates the dialogue between individual works, as well as the relationship with people within the park.

Each of the installations in People is distinct in its own right, functioning both as a singular object as well as part of a larger group

Left, <em>A Machine</em>, red oak tree, concrete. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund. Right, <em>People</em>, sugar maple tree, concrete, metal basketball backboard and hoop. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund — Left, *A Machine*, red oak tree, concrete. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund. Right, *People*, sugar maple tree, concrete, metal basketball backboard and hoop. Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone. Photo courtesy of Public Art Fund

This potentiality for the works to provide and create meaning for its inhabitants through the constant reinvention of the space based on the user's wants and needs propels the work from mere artwork to dynamic sculpture. For Tuazon, this is the most crucial component of the piece, the ability not to predict or create experiences but rather to provide a platform in which things can happen and that is exactly what his pieces in New York have the ability to do. Danielle Rago (@danielle_rago)

Through 26 April 2013
Oscar Tuazon: People
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Heights, New York

A life of their own

Escaping the context of the traditional white-cube gallery, American artist Oscar Tuazon responds directly to the city's natural and artificial landscape through a series of three urban interventions collectively titled People.

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