For the US premiere of his internationally recognized Icon series, Tom Fruin has created a monumental water tower sculpture in colorful salvaged plexiglas and steel. Watertower is mounted high upon a water tower platform becoming part of the DUMBO, Brooklyn skyline, situated on the rooftop of 20 Jay Street the sculpture is viewable from the parks and streets of Dumbo, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, FDR Drive and Lower Manhattan
This project is the fourth work in the plexiglas and steel patchwork Icon series which features scavenged, reclaimed, and recycled materials constructed into sculptural tributes to architectural icons around the world, from the obelisco of Buenos Aires, to the kolonihavehuse of Copenhagen.
Fruin, who often works with reclaimed and discarded materials, has composed Watertower from roughly one thousand scraps of plexiglas. It includes such details as interior and exterior access ladders and an operable roof hatch.
Illuminated by the sun during the day and by Ardunio-controlled light sequences designed by Ryan Holsopple at night, this beacon of light is a tribute to the iconic New York water tower and a symbol of the vibrancy of Brooklyn.
Tom Fruin (b. 1974) works in Brooklyn, NY. His work is a part of many international museums and collections, most notably The Hanck Collection at the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany; the Richard J. Massey Foundation for Arts and Sciences in New York, NY; and the Buenos Aires Design Center (Centro Metropolitano de Diseño) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fruin’s most recent contribution to public art in New York City is the 50 foot tall neon sculpture HOTEL on the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
