Oscar Tuazon Tree Sculptures Take Root At Brooklyn Bridge Park

By on July 20, 2012 7:05 pm in Arts and Entertainment, brooklyn bridge park, Visual Arts

Three tree-like “sculptures” that, uh, resemble barren dead hardwood, have taken root in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Created by Oscar Tuazon and presented by the Public Art Fund, the towering artworks, curiously titled “People,” are located on Piers 1 and 2 and will be on luminescent display through April 26, 2013.

According to a release, “These hybrid sculptures incorporate both natural materials and industrial building techniques—local trees and cement casting are at the core of each work—and explore the idea of architecture, labor and reinvention.”

In the first work, a tall tree trunk is supported with a minimalist steel triangle that conceals a spring from which water flows. The second is formed by a 10-foot square cast cement cube with a tall tree embedded at its central axis. The third tree trunk anchors a basketball hoop and a handball wall. All allege to function as “both as an icon and a passageway along the pier.”

(Photos: Curbed)

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  • ColumbiaHeightster

    The value of a piece of art is not subjective – it has a finite, determinable value, which is to be determined by the posters on the Brooklyn Heights Blog (who apparently think they have some kind of final say on what makes for good or bad art).

  • Zorg

    To Crusty (and other non-Philistines): Hear, hear! Amen!

  • my2cents

    Every single time any public art is installed in this area these threads remind me how provincial the supposedly “cultured” people in this neighborhood are. America’s first suburb indeed!

  • Witness

    Mr. Crusty, I was running down there today. There were a few kids playing basketball with the art hoop. A couple bicyclists had to stop suddenly and a couple pushing a stroller had to swerve to avoid being run into. This combined with the bicycle racks recently installed there for the pool are creating a bit of a bottleneck and a possible hazard.

    I am all for public art. I love the Mark di Suvero sculpture. But the planning and siting of this work (or at least this particular piece) is lacking.

  • Elmer Fudd

    Does anyone remember the blazing hot steel domes in the “park”? Yes, the good old days. How soon we forget.

  • I love boats

    It is a WATERFRONT park. How about more effort being paid to doing things on the water? Why aren’t boats visiting this park more? Great to have kayaks there, but there should be so much more to see, board, ride that floats.

  • I love water

    The observation above that “It is a WATERFRONT park” is key. How odd that, in this park, except for the ferry service, no use is made of the East River itself: it’s a silent partner.

    I hope someone more knowledgeable than I will (1) generate an imaginative, explicit, practical list of options for getting people (safely) onto the water, (2) share that list with the community, (3) present it to Park authorities. I’m ready & eager to “float”!

  • Wiley E.

    I love boats and water too. So do so many other good people who live in this community.

    All of your suggestions have been addressed and presented to the “park” regulators. But the “park” has been bought by Mayor Bloomberg, and all of the administrators are his employees. They have to do as he says.

    Bloomberg loves rich people, and hates Brooklyn. His rich real estate buddies can’t make money on maritime projects. So, water based activities are dismissed by the Brooklyn Bridge Park people.

    By the way, it isn’t a “park”. It is a private community development project – of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. And like most rich people – they don’t like to pay their taxes. Their would-be tax money is used for park upkeep :-(, the BBP has sole direction of those expenditures.

    For the people of Brooklyn, who love boats and the water, it is a shame that this project was hijacked by Mike Bloomberg with NY City tax payer money. There is no real community input left here.

    This site has rare and unique maritime characteristics that are being wasted. I wish there was some way to change priorities, but these decisions are profit-driven for the select few.

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