Virginia Overton

With scrap steel found in the Socrates workshop, this work manifests its title, emphasizing the subtle aesthetic difference between commonly used square and circular tube.  Reminiscent of Modernist sculpture traditions, it evokes an abstract figure.

Here Overton refashions the bed of her pick-up truck as an aquatic plot for a swath of lotuses.  Because the plant closes its petals each night submerging into the water and reemerges anew every day, it is considered symbolic of rebirth and sacred in many traditions. The pairing of this flower and a truck that she has used in previous artworks alludes to the Park’s evolution from landfill to green space. 

This piece is part of a series of institutional signs Overton has made for solo exhibitions over the years. While ostensibly an ordinary wayfinding device, this sign’s use of the Park’s shorthand name and its unusual location playfully open up interpretations.  Hung high above the Park’s outdoor studio space, it marks the site as a space of creative production and suggests the lofty ideals of its Greek philosopher namesake.

The image on this billboard introduces the concept of reuse, which is a central logic and method of the exhibition, and points to a forgotten history. The bottle reads “Federal law forbids sale or reuse of this bottle,” a warning required on all US liquor bottles that were distributed between 1935 and 1964, to curtail bootlegging in the aftermath of Prohibition’s repeal.

Overton appends this beam to one of the of steel pillars holding up the roof over Socrates’ outdoor artist studio space.  The beam slots through an existing hole in the structure’s roof.  Made from a single piece of wood, the beam’s vertical orientation emphasizes its tree-like character.

This sculpture consists of a steel gantry from Socrates and a salvaged pine beam. The gantry has been employed as a tool in the production of countless artworks in the park’s studio over the years. The beam bares cut holes, evidencing the mortise and tenon joint system that once secured the piece into a larger architectural structure. The way these materials have been joined to make the sculpture allow them to be reinterpreted and still bare their original intent.

Combining materials with disparate sources and connotations—organic, synthetic, and mechanical—Overton creates a diagram-like ensemble with a light catching lens.

From the tow arm of this pick-up truck, Overton hangs a steel tank, creating a mobile sculpture on a mobile vehicle.  The entire surface of the truck, including windows, mirrors, and lights, and the time worn industrial tank is covered with a blanket of deep blue car paint, so that all the work’s elements cohere into a singular union.

Composed of retro-fitted found architectural truss systems and angle iron, this gem-shaped structure combines two truss types. Overton creates the iconic pitched truss form by joining two Warren truss members. These amalgamated trusses ring a central void within the crystalline structure, producing a muscular polygon of steel beams and porous facets that cantilevers over the ground.

This rectangular rack of trusses supports a pile of cut pipes in a variety of diameters and metals gathered from the artist’s studio and the Park’s material stores. The piece invites park visitors to peer through the pipes as readymade viewfinders, each with a distinct glimpse of park vistas, the East River and the Manhattan city skyline.