Walking around the Brooklyn Bridge Park until the 26th April you can see the three new sculptures by the artist Oscar Tuazon. The street exhibition is organized by the New York no profit organization Public Art Fund.
Tuazon's work typically combines industrial and natural materials to transform the experience of a building or space. The rough and ready materials and do-it-yourself sensibility of his work pushes the limits of objects and architecture: wood beams are strapped against structural frames, trees butt up against cast-cement forms, and metal studs are hinged on patches of sheetrock.
For Brooklyn Bridge Park, Tuazon has created three related sculptures. Inspired by the resourceful creativity of urban neighborhoods, the structures suggest sculptural variations on familiar playground designs. Installed along Pier 1 and 2, each work is enlivened by its everyday use: a tree becomes a fountain; a makeshift handball wall is held straight by a tree trunk that also accommodates a basketball hoop; a cement cube breached by a tree frames the surrounding landscape and echoes the original piers along the waterfront.
In The Rain, a ten-foot-square, cast cement cube embedded with a tree functions both as a resting place and a passageway; in A Machine, a tall tree becomes a spring from which water will flow; and in People, a makeshift handball wall is anchored by a tree trunk which also serves as the support for a basketball hoop. Informed by Minimalism, urban play, and utilitarian construction, these structures will both activate the area they inhabit and be enlivened by park visitors.
Tuazon’s work deals inventively with the fundamental aspects of sculpture such as balance, volume, and weight. At the same time, his installation creates a playful dialogue with built and natural forms against the Manhattan skyline.
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