Red Precipitation

Socrates Sculpture Park is surrounded by brick tenement housing blocks. When the opportunity arose to make a sculpture in the park I returned to the ideas of eroding clay and, using the housing blocks as a visual key, I built a simple elegant ten foot high steel table capable of holding several tons of bricks.

The top of the table was made from a strong steel grating so that if you stood underneath and looked up you could see the sky dissected by the grid and on this I built a thick chimney from unfired clay brick. A chimney that did not exude out but with natural precipitation would leak in and down into the park. In conception I thought that during the winter months in New York City the piece would begin to change due to the rain and ice and adapt its shape to circumstance, and during the summer months would bake and harden its presence before the inevitable next seasonal onslaught of precipitation. I thought of it like a strange sand clock.

Unfortunately after a cycle of seasons the piece was vandalized by some kids - and it was decided that it should be removed from the park.

Here’s what Michael Kimmelman had to say about it in The New York Times: