Target Art in the Parc

NEW YORK CITY (May 17, 2002) - Target Art in the Park, an unprecedented three-year contemporary public art program in New York City, opens with its final exhibition on July 12, 2002 in Madison Square Park. The exhibition features new works by Dan Graham, Mark Dion, and Dalziel + Scullion that highlight the link between city life and the natural world, and explore the present and past of historic Madison Square Park. Visitors will encounter a series of cast-aluminum expedition tents invoking distant, exotic landscapes; a glass pavilion that creates a kaleidoscopic visual experience; and a field station for learning about the natural wonders of the park.

Target Art in the Park, organized by Public Art Fund, is funded through a $1 million gift from Target Stores to the City Parks Foundation. Past Target Art in the Park exhibitions featured work by Teresita Fernandez, Tony Oursler, Navin Rawanchaikul and Tobias Rehberger.

ARTISTS' PROJECTS

Dan Graham's Bisected Triangle, Interior Curve For Target Art in the Park, Graham will create a sleek two-room, walk-in pavilion of two-way reflective glass. During the past three decades, Graham has become internationally famous for his pavilions, which he has created for parks all over the world. Bisected Triangle, Interior Curve will be his first work for a New York City public park. Situated at the northwest end of Madison Square Park, Graham's pavilion will be a triangular form (20 feet x 24 feet x 24 feet) that integrates into the wedge-shaped geometry of the 19th-century park.

By entering the pavilion through a sliding door and looking out through its glass walls, park visitors can contemplate their own reflections while simultaneously observing the hustle and bustle along Broadway. This optical distortion - both meditative and visually disconcerting - can vary profoundly, as the glass walls become transparent or opaque in shifting natural light. Inside the calm of this unlikely urban oasis, viewers become increasingly conscious of movement and activity surrounding the structure: trees blowing above, passersby and traffic moving past, and even one's own reflected gaze. Just as moving through urban streets can prompt changing perspectives of the city, pausing inside Graham's pavilion induces park-goers to see a familiar place in a new light.

Dan Graham, often associated with Minimalist artists Dan Flavin and Sol LeWitt, is a Conceptual artist who emerged as a pioneer of performance and video art in the early 1960s. By the 1970s, he had begun working with quasi-architectural structures, the body of work for which he is best known.

Mark Dion's Urban Wildlife Observation Unit Working closely with scientists and non-art institutions, Mark Dion mines the fields of ecology, botany, ethnography, and natural history museum displays in realizing his installations and sculptures. His long-standing interest in environmental issues has led him to create Urban Wildlife Observation Unit, a constructed urban ecological center that will allow park visitors to reexamine their surroundings by taking a closer look at the natural environment - the animals, bugs and trees - in Madison Square Park.

Fashioned after a 19th-century wildlife refuge viewing area, Dion will adorn his field station with objects, drawings, and other props that pertain to the park's natural surroundings. Created with input from park rangers and New York-area naturalists, Dion's interactive sculptural area allows for a unique and educational engagement with Madison Square Park.

Dion's Urban Wildlife Observation Unit will be accompanied by a full range of exciting educational programming, including a series of free lunchtime talks, a 32-page field guide, and an educational program for junior high school students. The noon talks will be delivered by artists, naturalists, botanists and historians, each of whom have been invited by Dion to speak about a particular aspect of Madison Square Park. The field guide - available free to all visitors - will include illustrations and descriptions of the park's flora and fauna, writings by art critic Gregory Volk and naturalists Michael Crewdson and Margaret Mittelbach, as well as a timeline history of the park.

Dalziel + Scullion's Voyager Scottish artist duo Dalziel + Scullion will make their New York debut with Voyager, three two-person expedition tents of cast aluminum. Each tent is exquisitely rendered, with luminous surfaces that mimic the texture of a real tent, suggesting stretched fabric, arched framework and pulled tethers. Sited at the southern end of Madison Square Park, Voyager serves as reminder of exotic places, the spirit of adventure, and the American wilderness. Simultaneously referencing architectural design and historic expeditions, Voyager links Dan Graham's interest in urban psychology and physical space, and Mark Dion's investigation of urban ecology and 19th-century representations of nature.

Working collaboratively since 1993, Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion have created multimedia and sculptural works that investigate the complex and necessary relationship between humanity and nature. Their recent collaborations - which have ranged from a tin-roofed rain pavilion to an installation reconstructing the origins of a glacial valley in Norway - transport viewers from their familiar contemporary surroundings to imaginary, distant landscapes in which nature is a more rugged, vibrant element.

Public Art Fund The Public Art Fund is New York's leading presenter of artists' projects, new commissions, installations, and exhibitions in public spaces. With 25 years of experience and an international reputation, the Public Art Fund identifies, coordinates and realizes a diversity of major projects by both established and emerging artists throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.

The Public Art Fund is a nonprofit arts organization supported by generous gifts from individuals, foundations and corporations, and with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs.

City Parks Foundation The City Parks Foundation (CPF) is an independent, non-profit organization that combines arts, sports and educational programs with community involvement to revitalize parks and the neighborhoods that surround them. Its programs, most of which are free, reach over 600,000 kids and adults in parks throughout New York City each year.

With the ongoing support of the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, City Parks Foundation leads the Campaign for the New Madison Square Park - a $12 million initiative to revitalize and maintain the historic green space.

Target Stores Minneapolis-based Target Stores serves guests at 1,081 stores in 47 states nationwide by delivering today's best retail trends at affordable prices. Whether visiting a Target store or shopping online at target.com, guests enjoy a fun and convenient shopping experience with access to thousands of unique and highly differentiated items. Target Stores, along with its parent company Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), gives back more than $2 million a week to its local communities through grants and special programs. Since opening its first store in 1962, Target has partnered with nonprofit organizations, guests and team members to help meet community needs.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

DAN GRAHAM Since his first solo show at the John Daniels Gallery in 1969, Dan Graham has exhibited internationally in four Documentas (1972, 1977, 1982 and 1992) and in solo shows and mid-career retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Fundação de Serralves, Porto. A Conceptual artist, Graham emerged as a pioneer of performance and video art in the early 1960s. By the 1970s, he had begun working with quasi-architectural structures, the body of work for which he is best known. Born in 1942 in Illinois, Graham currently lives and works in New York.

MARK DION Mark Dion was recently commissioned to create works for Aldrich Museum of Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut; the Tate Gallery, London; and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. He has exhibited in major museums and galleries worldwide, including solo exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and American Fine Arts, Co., New York. Mark Dion explores the fields of ecology, botany, ethnography and natural history museum displays, as well as works in conjunction with scientists and non-art institutions to create his installations, sculptures, and video work. Born in 1962 in Massachusetts, Dion lives in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania. Dion has an upcoming exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in December 2002.

DALZIEL + SCULLION Dalziel + Scullion was recently commissioned to create major works at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; York Sculpture Park, Wakefield, Scotland; and Oriel 31 Gallery, Newtown, Wales. They have also had solo exhibitions at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, Australia; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. Working collaboratively since 1993, Dalziel + Scullion investigate connections between humanity and nature through their multimedia and sculptural works. Matthew Dalziel was born in 1957 in Irvine, Scotland; Louise Scullion was born in 1966 in Helensburgh, Scotland.

Target Art in the Parc

Künstler: Dan Graham, Mark Dion, Matthew Dalziel + Louise Scullion