Looking For A Landscape
2009
City Certified Utility Box, Binoculars, Pillows, Hardware, Paint and Stickers
3.5’x5’x2.5'
The original housing of Looking For A Landscape is a standard city utility box with a concrete base, painted and graffitied like all of the other utility boxes in the city. The doors are modified so that they do not open like a normal utility box, but are hinged at the bottom and pull down, cantilevering like a drawbridge, to create two large platforms on either side on which to sit. Each of these platforms is upholstered with a gold-trimmed, maroon colored pillow that covers the entire surface. Binoculars, the same kind used for sightseeing at scenic locations, are mounted at eye-level on top of a post at the center of each pillow. These binoculars point out into the city, becoming a viewing station of the everyday. The entire structure is on retractable wheels embedded inside the concrete base. When the wheels are up, the utility box looks like a stationary, permanent part of the city. When the wheels are brought down, by a cranking mechanism inside the base, they make contact with the ground allowing Looking For A Landscape to be moved to the next location of the city.