Tamara Johnson

PICNIC
2018
Maria Hernandez Park, Bushwick, Brooklyn NY
Cast Concrete
11in x 5ft x 6ft
Picnic was fabricated specifically for Maria Hernandez Park and the surrounding Bushwick community. This familiar picnic scene symbolizes the gathering, relaxing and sharing experienced with the public space of a Brooklyn park. This hand-cast concrete picnic serves as a tribute to those symbols, turning a temporary happening into a static monument for participation and contemplation. Picnic was sponsored by NYC Parks and Recreation Dept. and, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

BACKYARD POOL
2014

The Lot, Long Island City, NY
Presented by Socrates Sculpture Park and Rockrose Development Corporation
Concrete, ceramic tile, aluminum, fiberglass, seed, acrylic paint
26” x 44’ x 26’ 5”

This commissioned sculpture is a second iteration of A Public Pool presented at Socrates Sculpture Park. Positioned specifically for The Lot, a small park on Crescent Street, this Backyard Pool serves as a flagship of non-functionality and dislocation in the bustling urbanity of Long Island City. 

Public Art Review: Forecast Public Art, "Tamara Johnson’s Waterless Pools"
Backyard Pool honored at Public Art Network, Year in Review 2015

A PUBLIC POOL
2013
Concrete, aluminum, plaster, acrylic paint, plastic, seed
1’4″x 20′ x 31′

This pool was part of Socrates Sculpture Park’s EAF 13: Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition. Based on public pools built in Brooklyn, NY in the late 1930's by the NY Parks Commission, this iteration of a public pool appears to be forgotten and filled with earth, summoning uncanny memories of play, loss and the effects of abandonment on a landscape.

ATLAS ON HER SHOULDERS
2011
Public performance, Downtown Providence, RI
Foam, plaster, wood, magnets acrylic paint
12' x 6" x 6"

Documentation of public performance conducted in downtown Providence, RI in which a faux steel beam attached to an existing steel scaffolding and proceeded to be “held up” for the duration of a day.

AN INTERIOR COMPLEX
2015
Wave Hill Sun Room Project Space, Bronx, NY
Gypsum plaster, epoxy putty, wood, foam, latex and acrylic paint
Dimensions varied

An Interior Complex recreates the stone balustrade bordering the edge of Wave Hill’s Lower Lawn inside their window patio Sun Porch. Beginning on the exterior stone precipice of the sun porch, 25 surreal hand-made balusters appear to be crashing through the window and entering the room. As the balusters edge further into the space, they become anthropomorphized, breaking apart, losing their function and mimicking deflated and mutated beings.

GRAND OPENING at The Moran Plant
2014
Cotton fabric, grommets, rope, acrylic paint, hooks
15’ x 3’ x 50’ (installed) 

Hand-painted bunting, initially installed in an abandoned power plant in Burlington, Vermont, stand as symbols of shifting commerce and uprooted emblems of opportunity. Painted, bleached and stained to appear aged and tattered, these flags recall a time past, holding on to the promise of new beginnings. 

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
2014
Rooster Gallery Contemporary Art
THE BATHROOM, Project Space

Rope, rubber, plastic, pigment, aluminum
Dimensions varied

This installation features a landscape of rubber hoses in disarray amongst a small private environment in the bathroom space at Rooster Gallery in NY’s lower eastside. The water hose, a common everyday object encountered often outdoors, becomes a growing vine, an exposed intestine, a sinewy drawing reaching across the floor of the gallery bathroom.

COME, LABOR ON
2011
Public performance, Downtown Providence, RI
Foam, plaster, acrylic paint, various hardware
32" x 13" x 40"

A performance conducted in downtown Providence, RI in which the body merges with a faux slumping barricade. The body and object function together in flux, both as support structures and crushing forces.