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microcosm
a series of public projects, summer 2010
1st project: "Emergency shelter" Liam Herne
Friday 16 Jul -
Shoreditch Park, New North Road
Junction City Road & East Road
Please scroll right for project press release & in situ images.
Or download pdf, with map, <here>
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Public open spaces set up an interesting tension between public access on the one hand and trust between strangers, especially in a pluralistic society, on the other.
Take the urban park. The model we know today was first set up in Victorian times as a place for all regardless of class to convene and enjoy the outdoors. They became the model for other parks in Europe and America. How soon afterwards the “keep off the grass” sign was created is not known, but it was mentioned in a New York Times newspaper dated 14 May, 1894 (“Central Park’s may throng; tortured by shade and rest it could not enjoy”, source: New York Times archive).
Parks are meant to bring nature into an urban setting. Yet some suspect that trees and bushes harbour illicit anti-social behaviours and want their removal – as a side note, try an internet search of the phrase “asbo parks”.
Are public spaces somewhere for us to “take great pleasure in that world of stranger, [one part of] the cosmopolitan city” or is it a pass-through space, a debate Richard Sennett sets out in The Fall of Public Man (1977).
The first project is Liam Herne’s installation of emergency tents in an Islington park and the junction of 2 thorough fares. The artist offers the tents as urban shelters for ad-hoc users of the park, for those of us caught by a sudden rain shower, fatigue or a general need of temporary privacy. The project is expected to be removed, by the users and or the park’s guardians. The exhibition continues until the tents are gone.
Shoreditch Park, south west,
New North Road
Junction City Road & East Road
