OSTRICH
This immersive, site-specific project is a comment on how we - constantly attached to our mobile devices - neglect to observe the environment around us.
Like ostriches, we willingly trap our heads, minds, and imagination in a fantasy world that is detached from reality.
Three colorful fabric tunnels span a man-made grove of Elm trees in downtown Boston, defining an intimate courtyard where nature clashes with cartoonish representation.
The tunnels act like blinders to the trees in the park. They are thus painted on the outside with comic, larger-than-life scale Elm leaves - the leaves of the trees one cannot see.
Art Installation
Rose Kennedy Greenway at Rowes Wharf, Boston, MA
For
Figment Boston
Media
Featured in “Figment Interactive Art Festival by Dewey Square 2013”, Samantha Laine, The Boston Globe, 7/2013
MATERIALS + DIMENSIONS
Fabric, EMT conduit, CMU, spray paint, cedar
(6) 30′ long walls occupying a 50′ diameter round space
(6) 30′ long walls occupying a 50′ diameter round space
This immersive, site-specific project is a comment on how we - constantly attached to our mobile devices - neglect to observe the environment around us.
Like ostriches, we willingly trap our heads, minds, and imagination in a fantasy world that is detached from reality.
As with all public projects, it was very interesting to observe children invent unintended uses and play with the footings
which were extremely simple due to the temporary nature of the project.
Three colorful fabric tunnels span a man-made grove of Elm trees in downtown Boston, defining an intimate courtyard where nature clashes with cartoonish representation.
The tunnels act like blinders to the trees in the park. They are thus painted on the outside with comic, larger-than-life scale Elm leaves - the leaves of the trees one cannot see.
So as to activate the experience, make it both more fun and more artificial, the tunnels are asymmetrical: of varying heights, colors and starting points.
So as to activate the experience, make it both more fun and more artificial, the tunnels are asymmetrical: of varying heights, colors and starting points.
As with all public projects, it was very interesting to observe children invent unintended uses and play with the footings
which were extremely simple due to the temporary nature of the project.
Work/Credits
Design: Ioana Urma. Fabrication: Ioana Urma, with help from & Zach Hoevet (woodshop/CMU inserts).
Installation: Ioana Urma, with help from Bogdan Urma, Vlad Urma, Vasile Zaharia, Raluca Sisu, Victor Oancea, Elena Oancea, George Popovici, Marius Vilcu, & Figment volunteers.
Photos: Ioana Urma, except photo #2 by Samantha Laine for The Boston Globe.
