Many of my fond childhood memories were forged in the confines of my tree house. There were wars between treehouses in the community, strange rules of membership, and many stolen kisses with the girl next door. Now I’m not talking about some sort of pre-fab, flat-pack fort that any Joe could put together with a hammer and a case of beer. Mine, was made of old lumber, doors, and scrap metal for a roof. It was a glorious sanctuary, but unfortunately, my friends and I tore it down. I don’t even know if any pictures were taken of my tree fort during it’s 5-year existence, and so, it lives on in my memory.
In an attempt to re-capture some of the magic, Tree Huts, an installation by Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata, seeks to explore the architecture of shelter and the idea of placing what is decidedly a private place, a home, into a public space, Madison Square Park, and encouraging conversation about the meaning of it all. “In keeping with Kawamata’s emphasis on a unique creative process, the artist-in-residency program will invite visitors to witness, explore and interpret the evolution of the first Madison Square Art project to be entirely fabricated in situ, and Kawamata’s first public installation in New York City since his landmark Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital project in 1992.”
