I enjoy creating entertaining public installations within my art practice and I have produced a few large scale sculptures over the past three years. My #teetertotter effort involves realizing a project that I have wanted to undertake for some time now.
I am in the process of creating a very unique teeter-totter which will be partially constructed out of recycled, repurposed, and scavenged materials. The most structurally important and costly element of the sculpture will be the base of the teeter-totter which will be built out of pressure treated lumber 8x8’s in a traditional style along with truck suspension springs to control the pivoting of the cedar tree, which will act as the cross beam that people sit on; Largely fastened together with lock-tight large size nuts and bolts to prevent theft or “tomfoolery”. Furthermore, apart from the cedar tree trunk sourced elements will be added such as bicycle handle bars for holding onto while bouncing, along with shredded car tires for seating and various items to customize as well as add aesthetic value to the unique feature. A pre-emptive focus will be put towards stripping the bark off the tree trunk and applying a professional finish that will make the trunk structurally sustainable for many years.
I would like to donate the piece to a public space for people to use and interact with. There are certainly a lot of locations that I could approach and potentially even share the piece amongst multiple sites to ensure maximum awesomeness.
In respect to viral culture and social networking I would like to further figure out how to get some professional looking carvings into the tree trunk to provide social indicators. This would be an attempt to try and direct the flow of images videos etc of those who interact with the piece by putting hash tags like Ex: #brickworks or #teetertotter – to complement those involved and the area it ends up in.
Stay tuned for your chance to follow #teetertotter on its journey throughout Toronto.
- Julian Michael Majewski
I am in the process of creating a very unique teeter-totter which will be partially constructed out of recycled, repurposed, and scavenged materials. The most structurally important and costly element of the sculpture will be the base of the teeter-totter which will be built out of pressure treated lumber 8x8’s in a traditional style along with truck suspension springs to control the pivoting of the cedar tree, which will act as the cross beam that people sit on; Largely fastened together with lock-tight large size nuts and bolts to prevent theft or “tomfoolery”. Furthermore, apart from the cedar tree trunk sourced elements will be added such as bicycle handle bars for holding onto while bouncing, along with shredded car tires for seating and various items to customize as well as add aesthetic value to the unique feature. A pre-emptive focus will be put towards stripping the bark off the tree trunk and applying a professional finish that will make the trunk structurally sustainable for many years.
I would like to donate the piece to a public space for people to use and interact with. There are certainly a lot of locations that I could approach and potentially even share the piece amongst multiple sites to ensure maximum awesomeness.
In respect to viral culture and social networking I would like to further figure out how to get some professional looking carvings into the tree trunk to provide social indicators. This would be an attempt to try and direct the flow of images videos etc of those who interact with the piece by putting hash tags like Ex: #brickworks or #teetertotter – to complement those involved and the area it ends up in.
Stay tuned for your chance to follow #teetertotter on its journey throughout Toronto.
- Julian Michael Majewski
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