PLAY SCULPTURES

2012

Inkjet print on paper, steel wires, coated aluminium tubes
Variable dimensions

This series of installations focus on the sculptural qualities of the paper itself of the large reproductions of the photographic sources from which the play sculpture objects have been removed. The holes in the paper destabilize the sheets and the paper falls and folds into a 3-dimensional form. The layering forms a spatial collage that the viewer can enter. But the paper is fragile and the original bodily contact with the play sculpture is replaced by the caution one adopts when close to fragile material. The coloured tubes suggest a variety of possible colour codes and dimensions of the steel bars, which were often part of the original sculptures.

Throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, the city of Vienna had quite an extensive program for art in public space, which was part of the rebuilding of the city after WWII. In the framework of this program, artists also developed sculptures for many playgrounds around the city, objects that were thought of as sculptures, as well as tools to be played with, the so-called „Spielplastik“ or “play sculpture”. Many of these were artistically at the level of their international counterparts and suggest a formal language and playfulness that was otherwise rarely present in the Austrian architecture and design of the time.  Today, almost all of them have disappeared, removed due to wear or security issues.