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Robert Moses Bench 01 2023
horse leather, cherrywood, glass bottles, elastic webbing
Robert Moses 01 offers an honest glimpse into the lives of those displaced in the 1950s through the objects that they left behind. The area known as Dead Horse Bay was once a small community in South Brooklyn comprising a few thousand people that lived and worked at the animal and refuse processing plants that dotted its shores in the late 19th and early 20th century. As transportation shifted from horse and buggy to automobile, most of these businesses dried up or moved elsewhere. Those who remained were met with Robert Moses' infamous campaign of land acquisition and had their land and homes taken from them. Today, what remains at the beach is a weathering mass of shoes, bottles, clothing, silverware, and countless other household artifacts strewn across the sand. The actions of one of New York’s most notorious urban planners are monumentalized as furniture.
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The bench is constructed from 64 hand scavenged Heinz brand baby food jars that rest on a cherrywood lattice inside of an upholstered box. Every component of the piece is wrapped in New York raised Appalousa hide, down to the last screw.
Swampland housing, Barren Island, Dead Horse Bay, 1937
