On a basic, visual level, Love Podium is a square platform with a small set of stairs on its front and back sides. These steps lead
to two slightly larger-than-life-size lecterns, which look out in
opposite directions and all but beg for bold proclamations to
be shouted from their plastic planks. With this unique shape and
stark design, the sculpture can come across as raw, silent, plain,
and more than a little odd. After all, it is a most peculiar rostrum
that suggests two people simultaneously stand side-by-side,
shoulder to shoulder, and back to back as they face off against
one another. But this uncanny object is rife with thoughtful
symbolism and boasts a fascinating sculptural split personality
of sorts.
In both form and title, Love Podium is a visual and verbal play
on Victorian-era tête-a-tête loveseats, whose fused chairs
face outwards in opposite directions to encourage whispered
conversation and gossip between couples. While tête-a-têtes
privilege intimacy, Peterman’s Love Podium does quite the
opposite. It positions pairs so that they communicate with a
larger audience, thus turning the function of the tête-a-tête
on its “head.” Love Podium is both a discrete, fine art object (with roots in the decorative arts, Surrealism, Minimalism, and environmental
art) and a suggested platform for participatory performance art
(with origins in social sculpture and public art). Love Podium’s
power and poignancy exist precisely in the intersection
between these two identities.
Love Podium is not alone in signaling a problem with the way
we speak, listen, and generally communicate with one another
under the umbrella of the First Amendment (a right that many
throughout the world still do not have). It is part of a lineage of
social sculpture set forth by Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) and Dan
Graham (b. 1942) and finds a sculptural kindred spirit of sorts
in the Freedom of Expression National Monument by Laurie
Hawkinson, John Malpede, and Erika Rothenberg, originally
installed at the Battery Park City Landfill in 1984 as part of a
Creative Time public art initiative and redeployed in Foley
Square during the 2004 election season.
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| 2018 love podium (travel version) Klosterfelde |
Within contemporary sculpture and public art circles, diverse
platforms for discourse like Love Podium have become more
important and more popular than ever. Projects like Antony
Gormley’s One & Other (2009), a Fourth Plinth Commission
in Trafalgar Square, London, or Elmgreen and Dragset’s It’s
Never Too Late To Say I’m Sorry (2011–2012) and Amalia
Pica’s Now Speak! (2011), both featured in the Public Art
Fund’s 2012 outdoor exhibition Common Ground in New
York’s City Hall Plaza, evidence the prevalence of a desire to
facilitate opportunities for pointed public expression through
artistic engagement.
Love Podium is part of a body of Peterman’s work that
reconfigures discarded plastic excess into furniture and
utilitarian objects—many of which have been repurposed in
public spaces throughout our cities. The resulting sculptures
are functionally, aesthetically, and philosophically sound;
operating as environmentally conscious artworks that foster
community connection.
In many cases,
community togetherness and conversation are made possible
by Peterman’s socially motivated sculptures. Paradoxically, though, the reality of our collective, not-so-earth-friendly
consumption is never far from mind thanks to the distinct
materiality of these artworks. The sad truth is that the plastic
Peterman recycles represents only a fraction of that which we regularly consume: the ratio is grossly disproportionate.
In fact, works like Love Podium represent roughly the plastic
consumption of a single American over a twelve-month period.
As Frieze Magazine critic Laurie Palmer points out, “making
such psychological contradictions tangible is the level on
which Peterman’s work is most effective and disturbing.” That sentiment is echoed by curator Raimar Stange who notes,
“as objects that are both utilitarian and aesthetic, Peterman’s
works are equally at home within and outside of the fine-art
context. More importantly, these qualities work together to serve
Peterman’s agenda: to make palatable the otherwise prohibitively
unsavory truth of our ecological circumstances.” To be sure,
these qualities and more are present in Love Podium, a sculpture
that melds artistic, social, and environmental issues with real-
world opportunities for activism and imaginative re-use.
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| 2017 Rhona Hoffman Gallery |
Love Podium embodies and thus helps us confront, so many different oppositions (or split personalities) in our midst— front/back, inside/outside, left/right, yes/no, pro/con, public/ private, use/re-use - and suggests that the grey area between any binary indeed may be the sincerest place to begin a meaningful debate.
Mary M. Tinti - Koch Curatorial Fellow
2013 deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum platform 10: Dan Peterman Brochure
2017 Rhona Hoffman Gallery
2018 love podium (travel version) Klosterfelde
2018 - 2020 Grant Park, Chicago
