Tom Fruin transforms reclaimed plexiglas, signage and steel into architectural public artworks. Documented projects incorporate daylight, programmed illumination and neon.
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Research notes for project planning
What the project record tells us
A 2012 rooftop sculpture in DUMBO, Brooklyn.
Plan for distant and nearby views
Watertower (2012) converts a familiar rooftop structure into a distant visual marker at 20 Jay Street in DUMBO. The studio documents salvaged plexiglas, steel, and programmed nighttime illumination, with daylight also shaping its appearance. For planning, this suggests evaluating the work from public approaches and across longer sightlines as well as from nearby. Its documented rooftop setting also makes structural coordination, maintenance access, and the relationship between daytime color and nighttime brightness useful early discussion topics for a future commission.
Which public viewpoints and daylight conditions should define the intended experience?
Big Art Partners planning prompt
A 2010 Copenhagen presentation combining sculpture and performance.
Separate sculpture from accompanying programming
Kolonihavehus (2010) was shown at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Library Plaza and combines a small garden-house form with salvaged plexiglas and steel. The studio also documents operable windows, a door, and collaboration with CoreAct involving performance, sound, costumes, and controlled lighting. This makes it useful for discussing how an architectural artwork might host programming without treating that programming as intrinsic to every installation. A project team could distinguish the physical sculpture, visitor access arrangements, and separately staffed or commissioned performances when defining scope.
Does the proposed scope include programming, and who would operate it?
Big Art Partners planning prompt
A 2012 sculpture at Brooklyn’s Wythe Hotel.
Consider salvaged material as local history
Hotel (2012) was installed at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg as a large vertical sculpture assembled from found signage, steel, neon, and rivets. The studio describes signs gathered across New York over two decades, including material recovered from discarded commercial settings. Its relevance to planning lies in the relationship between a recognizable building sign and the fragmented histories carried by its components. For a new setting, a useful discussion would concern whether locally sourced material is essential to the concept and how its provenance would be documented.
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