Working on the Failed Utopia

Location
Governors State University – Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park
University Park, Illinois

Year
2005

Artist
Christine Tarkowski

Working on the Failed Utopia highlights elements of Tarkowski’s methodology from earlier work while pointing the way to more recent installations. The piece incorporates previously developed print technology, but instead of transforming an object, the objects used in the screened images are themselves transformed when applied to the structure. Tarkowski photographed the urban detritus near her studio; by carefully composing a repeated image, she elevates this garbage (discarded roman candle tubes, Modelo beer cans, chicken bones, Newport cigarette boxes) to the level of pattern and creates a visually unifying surface design.

Rockey Structures provied engineering services for the fiberglass clad structural steel geodesic dome sculpture.