John Tagiuri's Lamps At Sennott Park Restored
November 2022 -- As part of improvements at Sennott Park on Broadway, Cambridge Arts has recently completed restoration of John Tagiuri's 2002 public artwork, "Chairs and Endless Lamps," near the basketball courts. The lamps are recognizable for their motifs of ancient Egyptian figures playing basketball.
Beginning in summer 2022, Cambridge Arts Director of Art Conservation Craig Uram, with help from the Cambridge Electrical Department, switched the lamps to Smart LED lighting, cleaned out the shades, installed new mounting brackets, and added covers on top (to prevent balls and junk from being tossed in).
Tagiuri's lamps flank red-painted step seating and "Chairs," a set of concrete chairs evoking upholstered arm chairs, as a sort of whimsical living room arrangement linking the Moses Youth Center's back patio to the park. The undulating geometry of the lamp posts is a tribute to Constantin Brancusi's famed 1918 sculpture "Endless Column," which was based on a series of pyramids stacked point to point.
Tagiuri's proposal grew out of several meetings with young members of the center, who noted the architectural division between the building and adjoining park. Tagiuri intended for the step seating to serve as a "grand stand" for the Sennott Park basketball court. As part of the project, Tagiuri held workshops at the youth center where the members documented the everyday culture and spirit of the center and their own communities in hundreds of Polaroid photos.
Tagiuri has completed several large public projects and is noted for his community involvement and his commitment to art as a means of exploring social and environmental issues. His guerrilla art project "SUV Driver Violation Ticket" gained national attention. His sculptures have been exhibited by deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, The Attleboro Museum of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the Boston Center for the Arts.
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Michael Corcoran of the Cambridge Electrical Department removes a shade from John Tagiuri's "Endless Lamps" at Sennott Park, to help Cambridge Arts refurbish the public artwork so that it looks fresh when renovation of the park is completed, June 2022.