Judy’s Hand Pavilion, the newest monumental outdoor sculpture project by Tony Tasset, arrived in Cleveland this week ahead of the opening of the FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art.
As Cleveland.com reporter Steven Litt described it: “The lunch crowd picnicking at Toby’s Plaza in University Circle’s Uptown district Monday had some unexpected entertainment when a flatbed from Chicago showed up with a giant silver hand aboard.”
Here’s some great video courtesy of Cleveland.com of Tony talking about the installation of this amazing work:
We also have this description of the installation from FRONTART.ORG, along with a rendering of what the installation will look like:
“Tasset’s commissioned sculpture will double as a dramatic public shelter and gathering spot in the 34,000-square-foot plaza, and will animate this crossroads as a site of continued programming during the FRONT Triennial. The oversized sculpture serves several functions at once–as an an architectural pavilion, a place making marker and a work of art–raising a simple gesture to a civic monument and underscoring art’s potential to create new viewpoints in the urban fabric.
Judy’s Hand Pavilion is a writ large representation of the hand of the artist’s wife, who is a celebrated contemporary abstract painter. Indulging in the pleasures of verisimilitude, scale, and a lustrous finish, the work critically examines the artistic traditions of appropriation, pathos, and pleasure. Brightly colored, richly narrative, playful yet satirical, the artist is best known for his large-scale sculptures that draw from the visual language of American roadside advertising.
The project is co-Sponsored by Department of Art History and Art, KSL Library, Baker Nord-Center for the Humanities and Putnam Collection at Case Western Reserve University.”
