Summit Welcomes "Living Objects" to Village Green

On Tuesday night, Summit welcomed three new larger-than-life members to its community. They are the contemporary artwork of Jason Krugman, and they have taken up residence on the Village Green, directly across from the Summit Area YMCA.

The unique installation is entitled Living Objects and consists of three sculptures created from wooden skeletons, wire, plastic wrap, and strings of LED lights. The illuminated effect begs reactions from passersby.

"The reaction has been great—everyone has a reaction," said Marie Cohen, speaking of those who had a sneak-peek at the structures during their Tuesday installation.

Cohen, who serves as treasurer of the Mayor's Partnership for Summit Public Art, is credited with discovering and procuring Summit's latest work of art.

When asked about the process of seeking out pieces and their artists for exhibition, Cohen said, "We periodically go on various Web sites. I had gone on (Krugman's) Web site and noticed his installation in Brooklyn. I happened to notice that he was bringing down that installation in 3 days."

Cohen decided to e-mail the artist to find out about bringing Living Objects to Summit and fortunately for local residents, he agreed.

"It's kind of a win-win situation in that we can help (the contributing artists) out by displaying their art, and they're certainly helping us out by displaying their art," said Debi Schwarzmann, Vice-Chair of the Mayor's Partnership for Summit Public Art.

Krugman, who was unable to be present at the Tuesday unveiling, is a New York-based artist and a recent graduate of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Masters Program at its Tisch School of the Arts. The young artist is originally from Massachusetts and has had his work displayed throughout the world and the United States.

According to Krugman's Web site, Living Objects draws inspiration from the artist's childhood dreams, which he integrates into the common urban landscape.

The site information explains: "The sculptures respond to our innate cognitive and emotional reaction to the presence of a human form through their physical and emotional presence, relating to us as both human bodies and as objects of wonder."

Krugman's objects are described as "non-gendered…neither human nor object, reality or fantasy."

"His focus is the combination of kind of technology and art, and the lights are certainly a part of that," explained Schwarzmann.

The complete work consists of three figures: a reclining sculpture called "Big Boy" (18 x 9 x 7 ft), "Big Boy 2," who is a seated figure on a pedestal (12 x 7 x 10 ft), and a smaller sculpture posed on the shoulder of "Big Boy 2" (5 x 2 x 3 ft), named "Freddy" by the artist.

Before settling into Summit, Living Objects was initially installed in Brooklyn's McCarren Park.

Following their initial debut, the pieces were used on the set of the WB's hit series Gossip Girl, and will be nationally televised on the show during its latest episode, set to air on April 26.

According to Cohen, the Gossip Girl production company delivered the sculptures directly to Summit after borrowing them for the show.  

The sculptures, funded by North Brooklyn Public Arts Coalition, will remain on Summit's Village Green, just off of Maple Street, for about 5 to 6 months. The Mayor's Partnership Committee will then consider relocating the forms to a new Summit location, yet to be determined.

"It could even go as far as being on a rooftop," Cohen said, "so we're thinking about all sorts of fun things."

The current installation is presented by the Mayor's Partnership for Summit Public Art, also known as Public Art/Summit, whose basic mission is to bring art to Summit's public spaces. The organization is solely operated by volunteers and funded by private donations and grants, making the art available to all.

To date, the organization is attributed with organizing more than 25 art installations in the city of Summit, in addition to other projects such as the installation of art-glass windows in the Village Green bus shelters and the creation of Summit's first sculpture park (Wilson Park).

Just before Living Objects was uncovered, Michael Tcheyan, Co-Chair of the Public Art/Summit said to the crowd, "This is what I think of as day one of our community and what we're trying to do."