Urban Rooms
Photographer: Hunter Ridenour (2022)
Artist: + Forman
Year: 2017
Commissioned by: and (MACLA)
Aesthetics of Public Art
By Lindsley Britton, Art174, Fall 2021, 无忧短视频
鈥淯rban Room鈥檚鈥� structure consists of elevated 鈥渞ooms鈥� formed out of brightly colored vinyl-coated chain-link fences decorated with colored diamonds. The chain link structures sit on steel edifices, creating additional 鈥渞ooms鈥� below, shaded by the chain link latticework and black fabric canopies stretched between the sections. The result is an inviting open space adjacent to a stage used to host events and community gatherings.
The shaded area and event stage transform the park into a platform for block parties, community gatherings, and organized events in San Jos茅鈥檚 arty SoFA District. Between events, there are picnic tables situated in the shaded areas, providing an informal neighborhood gathering space. Viewed from the street, the large, elevated 鈥渞ooms鈥� provide a colorful addition to the narrow strip of a park, reminiscent of colorful playground equipment.
Urban Rooms is a public art piece about land use and communal space adaptation in the cultural production site of downtown San Jos茅. By choosing chain link fence as a building material, the design team invites dialogue about community and spatial division. Fences are designed to separate and divide, but by lifting the fences overhead to provide shade, their function is renegotiated.
(concludes essay by Lindsley)
Public Art as Resistance
Studio Teddy Cruz and Foreman have received international accolades for innovative flexible housing based on informal architecture. 鈥淯rban Rooms鈥� encourages resistance of the individual in favor of a communal space. Transforming the elements that would segment people, land, and communities to features that bridge division to form community.
Decentering the concept of individual space results in an experience where the viewer becomes a participant in critique of land tenure and use. Mimicking Indigenous villages, the structures demonstrate the interdependence between the individual and community. How neither can be whole without the other.
Continue Your Walk
After walking through the space, stroll over to the corner where you鈥檒l find the next public artwork, a bas relief sculpture.
Additional Resources
- 鈥溾�� description by City of San Jos茅
- 鈥溾�� video by Adrien (2017)
