Ostrich immersive fabric installation, Wharf District Parks, Boston

OSTRICH

This immersive, site-specific project is a comment on how we - constantly attached to our mobile devices - neglect to observe the environment around us. Like ostriches, we willingly trap our heads, minds, and imagination in a fantasy world that is detached from reality.
Three colorful fabric tunnels span a man-made grove of Elm trees in downtown Boston, defining an intimate courtyard where nature clashes with cartoonish representation.
The tunnels act like blinders to the trees in the park. They are thus painted on the outside with comic, larger-than-life scale Elm leaves - the leaves of the trees one cannot see.

Art Installation

Rose Kennedy Greenway at Rowes Wharf, Boston, MA

For

Figment Boston

Media

Featured in “Figment Interactive Art Festival by Dewey Square 2013”, Samantha Laine, The Boston Globe, 7/2013

MATERIALS + DIMENSIONS

Fabric, EMT conduit, CMU, spray paint, cedar
(6) 30′ long walls occupying a 50′ diameter round space
woman walking in fabric tunnel, talking on phone, not looking around her, Wharf District Parks, Boston
This immersive, site-specific project is a comment on how we - constantly attached to our mobile devices - neglect to observe the environment around us. Like ostriches, we willingly trap our heads, minds, and imagination in a fantasy world that is detached from reality.
long red panel with cartoon leaves painted on it, Wharf District Parks, Boston
children with lollipops sitting on CMU block footings
As with all public projects, it was very interesting to observe children invent unintended uses and play with the footings which were extremely simple due to the temporary nature of the project.
Three colorful fabric tunnels span a man-made grove of Elm trees in downtown Boston, defining an intimate courtyard where nature clashes with cartoonish representation.
man with daughter running through colorful project, Wharf District Parks, Boston
girl in pink and yellow tunnel, Wharf District Parks, Boston
The tunnels act like blinders to the trees in the park. They are thus painted on the outside with comic, larger-than-life scale Elm leaves - the leaves of the trees one cannot see.
long purple panel with cartoon leaves painted on it, Wharf District Parks, Boston
man running between pink and green panels with cartoon leaves painted on it, Wharf District Parks, Boston
So as to activate the experience, make it both more fun and more artificial, the tunnels are asymmetrical: of varying heights, colors and starting points.
So as to activate the experience, make it both more fun and more artificial, the tunnels are asymmetrical: of varying heights, colors and starting points.
girl walking through yellow and pink tunnel, with leaf shadows on the fabric, Wharf District Parks, Boston
red and green tunnel with leaf shadows on fabric, Wharf District Parks, Boston
long pink panel with cartoon leaves painted on it, Wharf District Parks, Boston
As with all public projects, it was very interesting to observe children invent unintended uses and play with the footings which were extremely simple due to the temporary nature of the project.
aqua and purple fabric tunnel inflated by the wind, Wharf District Parks, Boston
mother holding baby up to large cartoon leaves painted on green fabric, Wharf District Parks, Boston
legs of man seen under the red fabric panel with cartoon leaves painted on it, Wharf District Parks, Boston

Work/Credits

Design: Ioana Urma. Fabrication: Ioana Urma, with help from & Zach Hoevet (woodshop/CMU inserts). Installation: Ioana Urma, with help from Bogdan Urma, Vlad Urma, Vasile Zaharia, Raluca Sisu, Victor Oancea, Elena Oancea, George Popovici, Marius Vilcu, & Figment volunteers. Photos: Ioana Urma, except photo #2 by Samantha Laine for The Boston Globe.