Margate Park
For Chicago Public Art Group
Margate Park Field House
Chicago, IL
2004
Stainless steel, copper
17' x 8' x 8'
This swarm of stainless steel butterflies serves as a swirling entry archway to greet playground visitors with Entryway. Deeper into the playground, Brenner positioned three giant bugs—a bee, a dragonfly, and a butterfly. These sculptures, mounted on flexible poles, float and flutter high above a blue “pond” drawn onto the parkscape by varying the color of the soft playground surface. The overlapping metal screens forming the 5-6 foot wingspans create fascinating moiré patterns against the sky and in the shadows on the ground. The Margate Park sculptures are composed of low maintenance, long-lasting materials and help create an atmosphere of play and fantasy by inverting the scale relationship of the raised insects to the children. Entryway, along with Dragonfly, Butterfly, and Bumblebee in Margate Park were part of a larger project including playground designers, other artists, Chicago Park District Officials, and community members who worked together to create a visually rich and stimulating environment.
