“I can only conceive of collaboration in terms of an objective shared. It’s their world, not a grown-up’s world. It’s a land in which a person three feet tall can run around. I want the child to discover something I created for him–and I want him to confront the earth as, perhaps, early man confronted.”–Isamu Noguchi
Prolific sculptor Isamu Noguchi conceptualized a number of public projects he called “sculpture as space,” including dance stages, small sculpturally landscaped gardens, and playgrounds. Model for “Play Mountain, New York”, one of his first prototypes, was a direct response to a childhood memory of a desolate Tokyo playground. In this bronze cast version, Noguchi’s stylized relief that would have filled an entire city block features an amphitheater, terraces of various sizes, and two slides–a smaller one with water in the summer and a longer one for sledding in the winter. His aesthetic reflects a sensitivity to subtle changes of form and material. Unfortunately, the project was rejected by the New York Park Commissioner and never realized.