OUTDOOR PUBLIC ART

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION NATIONAL MONUMENT, nEW yORK

SPONSORED BY CREATIVE TIME, NY 1984 AND 2004.
OPENING NOVEMBER 10, 2017 AT THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NY

Inspired by the concept of a soapbox, Freedom entices passersby to climb its gently sloping ramp and embrace the megaphone to voice their thoughts, poetry, grievances, and hopes. Providing a public forum for dialogue on the dynamics of free speech, power and powerlessness, and a multiplicity of social and cultural concerns, the artwork engages individuals and groups to use the space in the tradition of a town square. It is both celebratory and ironic and directly addresses public frustration over getting its voice heard.

Originally installed in 1984 for Art on the Beach, Freedom captured the imagination of New Yorkers. For one memorable summer, thousands seized the megaphone to speak their minds to the world. Freedom brought contemporary issues to the fore—from the AIDS pandemic to homelessness in New York—and asserted the importance of standing by our right to express ourselves. The artwork also provided the community with a platform for song, poetry, and performance.

In 2004 Freedom was reinstalled in New York this time facing the courthouses in Foley Square.

The need for such a public platform has never been greater than it is now —Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times

Anyone who wants to can mount the platform and speak his or her mind. Try it. It’s an American tradition, to be exercised in the art world and everywhere else —Roberta Smith, The New York Times

UNDER THE COVERS, Los ANGELES

Under The Covers 1998

ROBERTSON LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES, 1998

I put a taste of what's inside the library on the outside in the form of quotes about reading, both reverent and irreverent. This project was named one of the best public art projects of 1998 by ArtNews magazine.

THE ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD, los angeles

The Road To Hollywood end of the road with chaise lounge

The Road To Hollywood, one of 60 mosaic panels

Beginning of the Road To Hollywood on Hollywood Blvd

HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND, 2001-2021, PUBLIC ART PROJECT IN LOS ANGELES

The Road to Hollywood is a marble mosaic and concrete floor piece continuing Hollywood's famous floor tradition—Mann's Chinese, Walk of Fame, etc.—snaking hundreds of feet through a development in Hollywood called Hollywood & Highland, the new venue for the Academy Awards Celebration, right next to Mann's Theatre. The artwork contains 49 stories of how different people in the entertainment business came to Hollywood and began their careers. The stories were gathered through interviews, books, articles and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Library collection of oral histories. Christopher Knight, writing in the Los Angeles Time, called The Road, "an exceptional work of public art…it ranks among the best public art projects in L.A." In 2021, new developers bought the Hollywood & Highland development and destroyed the work.

THE WALL OF (UN)FAME, Los Angeles

The Wall Of (Un)Fame, 1995

The Wall Of (Un)Fame, 1995 sign-up flyer

The Wall Of (Un)Fame, 1995 participants making footprints

The Wall Of (Un)Fame, 1995 kids with finished panels

THE WALL OF (UN)FAME) LOS ANGELES METRORAIL LAKEWOOD BLVD STATION, 1995

Local residents, picked by lottery, were immortalized in cement, much like Graumann's Theater in Hollywood. Concrete panels containing their signatures, hand and footprints were placed al over the station -- on walls, benches, even trashcans.