Scott Burton "Lecture"

‘At Documenta 8 last year in Kassel opposite the Orangerie there was a round bench with a tall shrub in the middle of it. Its central position on the lawn gave it the status of a statue. It took a little while to walk up to it which gave you plenty of time to get a good view. In this way the work of Scott Burton became more than just a functional object, it became a piece of sculpture. It oscillated in between 'private sculpture' and 'public furniture'; it wasn't purely an object made in the studio by an artist and intended for an art context. The form was just as important as the function, but it could just as well have been placed somewhere else. 'Public furniture' is not so bound to one place that it can only function in one spot, but in order for it to be used it needs to be placed in an environment. It is not intended exclusively for an art public. Amongst other things Scott Burton (1939) has made performances and theatrical tableaux, but he became known for his chairs and tables. These sculptures are mostly unmoveable because of their weight: his preference is for heavy materials like steel, stone, bronze and granite. In the commissions that Burton has had for work in public spaces, he shows his interest in the human and functional aspects of a work of art. For a covered courtyard of a firm in New York he designed a meeting place in the form of a semicircular bench with a round circle in front of it, also in granite, in which plants have been placed. In a park in Baltimore he got paths laid down, decided on the placing of plants (to provide the shadow required) and designed benches in a form that was intended to encourage conversation between users of the park. Scott Burton participates in the exhibition Furniture as Art in the Boymans-Van Beuningen museum (until June 5) and takes part in the Sculptureroute in Rotterdam '88. This exhibition will open on May 12 and his work there will undoubtedly be discussed in the lecture that Scott Burton is giving in De Appel on May 15.’ (‘Sculpture flirting with furniture’, Newsletter De Appel, 3 (1988) 2.)