View more photos in the “Get into the swing of…” album on the Spudart Facebook Page.
About the “Get into the swing of…” series
Little swings in public places. Swings are fun. We need more swings in places. These little swings have a figure enjoying the scene around him. It’s a reminder to people to enjoy the view wherever you are. If a little wire guy on a swing is enjoying the scene, you can pause for a moment and enjoy it too.
I’ve been wanting to do figures on swings for quite some time, but I always pictured them being ceramic figures, but then a few weeks ago I saw some paper clip figures on flickr or deviantart (I wish I had the reference). Making them from wire makes it a little easier to implement this series. Sorry, Lill Street Art Center, I really do need to take a ceramics class though.
Originally I was envisioning placing them on the guardrails at CTA stations. But with the sun this weekend, these guys were asking to be put in the park a couple blocks from me.
A few discoveries with this series:
- Wire cutters make good twig clippers.
- It was nice to sit down and an actually make some art with my hands, and to spend a little bit of time on it.
- I prefer the swing to be in an area that is not completely obvious.
- It’s fun to make the swings look like they are animated. The leg lift of the wire guy in this photo makes it look like he’s having fun swinging around.
Where this series will go:
- I’m gonna place swings in various public places. CTA stations, street signs, pretty much anthing that’s horizontal and can take a swing.
- If possible I’m gonna make the swing out of found objects in the area. The CTA station swings could be made out of discarded transit cards.
- The wire figure might get more elaborate. I’d really like for it to have a hat. Or to make a girl figure with pigtails.
- The figure might be made out of found objects too.
What do you think I should do with this series?
Somehow I overlooked this in my feed reader! HOW?! It’s a great idea for a series, and I love the little wire dude… I’d like to see him used in a future series – maybe a “wire guys doing things” series. Wire guy reading a newspaper, wire guy hang-gliding (attached to a kite stuck in a tree), wire guy making a smaller wire guy (meta art!) – I’m sure you could come up with better ideas.
Interesting that you pick up on the wire guy part of the artwork. For this series it was all about the swing. The wire guy is just there to operate the swing. But the way you are thinking here does lend to more ideas… what else could the wire guy do that’s kinda like the swing. Maybe he’s going down a slide. Oh! Hanging on a kite! I like that one.
I understand that it’s about the swing, but re-reading my comment it sounds different than it did in my head. The suggestion to use him in a future series was precisely because he’s not the main focus of this one, but I would like to see him used more centrally in another project. He just seems like he has soo much potential.