"Street Seat" (Indianapolis, Indiana)

 sculpture, swing (seat), draw only border

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Artist Greg Mueller chose to respond to Indianapolis’ walkable urban park with a piece that focuses on the pedestrian/vehicle dichotomy. A place for pedestrians to pause as they navigate through downtown arteries, "Street Seat" (2015) repurposes motifs associated with vehicular traffic to construct a piece of respite, gathering, and play. Mueller worked with the Department of Transportation to collect the decommissioned traffic signs, and also included a repurposed car tire. His intention is to harmonize the faded and worn into the resemblance of a whole.

Mueller’s entire practice seeks to “reinvent with a child-like curiosity,” transforming rejected debris into objects and places of hope. He rescues and salvages in an intuitive attempt to revitalize the spirit of the material. Initially working on instinct, his decisions are made slowly and with some uncertainty. Even so, his intention is to harmonize the faded and worn into the semblance of a whole. The resulting forms are a by-product of construction and the poetics of materiality.