Untitled (but it's a playground), Stefan Wykydal, 2005

Artist STEFAN Wykydal's medium-to small-scale gouaches interpret the surroundings of his everyday life:  community buildings, bus stops, schools and playgrounds. 

A Natural Playscape by Kate Hazell

I'm in Edinburgh at the moment (slow posting due to travels!) and just bought this beautiful print of a fantasy natural playground by Edinburgh College of Art trained Kate Hazell at the Red Door Gallery.  Apologies for the poor lighting from the cafe window because, well, it is Edinburgh.  Just wanted to share!

Olle Eksell and Egon Moller-Nielsen on the Playground, Stockholm, Sweden

I've featured Egon Möller-Nielsen's trippy playground constructions on the blog before so my spine tingled when I saw this drawing by Swedish illustrator Olle Eksell which shows the egg in its midcentury setting at Tessin Park in Stockholm!  I don't know the name of this drawing or where it appeared...I found it on a website that now appears to be defunct.  If you have any information do please let me know. There is a new book on Olle Eksell (Olle Eksell: Swedish Graphic Designer ) being released in April...perhaps I'll find the answer there.

[photo by la-citta-vita via flickr]

The playground art of Daniel Dove

Daniel Dove kindly responded to my query about why he uses playgrounds in his art, answering that in addition to their general appealing colors and shapes they also bear a structural resemblance to mid 20th century Abstract Expressionism ala Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, Willem DeKooning, et al. with their all-over pipes and slides; structures that are also, in his words "the closest thing in the built environment to a human body, and given that I started my painting life as a devoted figurative painter, I am attracted to that anthropomorphic quality.  I sometimes think of the pipes as intestines or limbs."

As anyone who has visited a McDonald's playground knows, these playgrounds "manifest a hyperbolic glee that I associate with consumer culture and advertising.  They are so aggressively joyful-looking that they tend to become parodies of themselves, reaching a critical glee-mass that collapses into irony.  I hope to capture some of this in my paintings."

This is especially true of the plastic playgrounds he depicts, which he gravitates toward "because plastic ages so badly and awkwardly, as opposed to metal or wood which acquires a patina of 'authenticity'.  I like the awkwardness of used plastic.  This is why the playscapes in my paintings usually have a kind of distressed or vomited-on quality, like a birthday party gone slightly awry.  Once again, there is a certain ironic aspect to this, and perhaps a (gentle) commentary about the disposability of the contemporary built environment."

Ultimately, he uses the playscapes to combine both abstract and realist conventions in his paintings, in "all-over" compositions that fill the canvas with color and form.    It strikes me that this is how a child sees a playscape:  with it filling their eyes all over.

[from top to bottom above are Exploded View (2009),  Funland 1 (2008), Overlap Version 1 (2005), Precita Playscape (2010), and  Playscape (2005)].

Nils Norman, Factory Floor, 2005

A 20 meter long mural executed for a 2005 exhibition entitled "Invisible Insurrection" in Bilbao...anyone have a better photo? [found at archinect]

The playgrounds of Constant Nieuwenhuys

Artist and architect Constant Nieuwenhuys' New Babylon (which he worked on approximately 1959-1974) was an envisioned city of the future that consisted of linked, transformable structures designed to be occupied by homo ludens - man at play.  (Inspired by the book of the same name by Johan Huizinga.)  It was of course never built, but his forms remain full of intriguing ideas for those who design places for infantes ludens.

Swing-set Houses, Tom Ngo

from a collection of architectural absurdities by artist Tom Ngo

Playground Architects, Josée Aubin Ouellette, 2009

A series of paintings exhibited at (appropriately) the YMCA during Edmonton Canada's 2009 The Works Art & Design Festival. [source]

The Swing, George Shaw, 2003

"As a kid, I wanted something to happen."

George Shaw paints scenes from his 70s Coventry childhood in Humbrol enamels...model paints.

"The Swing" is now at the Mead Gallery at the University of Warwick.

Let's Play by the Gearhearts

Another nice book for Christmas giving--play related though not specifically playground related--is Let's Play, a historic book being published by the Book Club of California, nearly 100 years after its initial authorship.  Originally assembled in 1929 by Pasadena artists, teachers, and sisters Frances, May, and Edna Gearhart, the book of their original linoleum cuts and descriptive verses was never produced, until now, in a limited edition of 1000 copies.  Available for purchase at the Book Club of California.

"Night Playground", Peter Doig, 1997

sold this summer at Christie's for $5,016,420.

Artist's Playground, Sudely Castle, 2008

The theme of last's years outdoor sculpture exhibition at Sudely Castle in the U.K. was play.

Some of the installations are of no relevance (Dripping plastic skeleton figure in a tree? Not. Playful.) but others have some new ideas...

Several of the pieces focused on reflectance, a material attribute I wish I saw more in playspaces. Jeppe Hein's 'Mirror Labyrinth' would definitely be fun on a playground, as would Arik Levy's 'Moon Tables', though finger smudges would have to be tolerated.






Henry Krokatsis reproduced the pulpit from the chapel on the Castle's grounds as a treehouse. Since pulpits are a place for 'vocalizing' it made me think of the delight of having a shouting spot (preferably elevated, like this one) on the playground.



James Hopkins made a bottle containing lenses and mirrors to give a kaleidoscopic view of the surroundings (how much do I want to see lenses used on the playground? Alot.)




and Carston Holler (he of the gigantic slides at the Tate Modern) contributed a flying machine.



Oh, and Zaha Hadid made a slide, but it looked just like her shoes/sofas/faucets/buildings and wasn't very interesting.
[Thanks, Fawn!]

Register at Your Playground Now, 1936

WPA poster, 1936, from the American Memory project at the Library of Congress.

Playground art by Edward del Rosario

Found via a NYT article on the declining number of children in Europe, the lonely playgrounds of Edward del Rosario.

Cleveland Playground Housing Ad, 1936

More of Richter Spielgerate later, but for now, this lovely image from the Library of Congress

Rag, Tag and Bobtail at play, 1899

via the inimitable bibliodyssey, the play adventures of Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, 1899 by Edith Farmiloe.

The text is interesting; underneath the idealized imagery is a grim acknowledgement of the lack of play opportunities (and even grass!) for poor children in fin-de-siecle London.

The playground-inspired art of Judy Rushin

"These days I daydream a lot about the territories that lay between child and adult worlds. These are the places where innocence and experience overlap, where the tension of the safety of the sheltered childhood and the hazard of the encroaching adult world co-exist. If we’re lucky, we visit and revisit these places throughout our lives.

Place is about the construction of personal memory, concentrating on these transitional places.

The work arises from a combination of intuitive responses, direct observation and conceptual resonance. "

Above, "Blue Structure". See more at Judy Rushin's website.

Play-station

[t-shirt design reported by swissmiss, available at wireandtwine.
A portion of sales goes to the Children and Nature Network.]

Playground, PJ Crook

No equipment here...just community games.

PJ Crook's website

Brueghel Redux, 2007

A class of Belgian schoolchildren re-creates the Brueghel painting in their schoolyard.

What a great playground activity!

Apparently, there is a group in the former Flemish countries of Northern Europe devoted to perpetuating the games depicted in the painting, but I couldn't find any further information on it.