About PDL

Coin Drops

Theatre Hitchhiking

The PDL Rap

PDL as SBC at TAM

Offspring at Olympic Sculpture Park

Ceci N'est Pas Une Swing Set @ OSP

Portable Confessional Units

Deep Space at Motel, Motel, Motel

Seattle Art Museum
Unauthorized Audio Tour

SQUAT at Kerry Park

Wake(up) at OSP

Wind Farm in Bellevue Park

Blog Theatre

Zoo to You Foundation at Free Sheep

Portland Art Museum
Unauthorized Audio Tour

Give them an inch and PDL wants a mile. Ceci N’est Pas Une Swing Set was our third unauthorized installation in the Olympic Sculpture Park. We had started a healthy conversation about art in public spaces, and wanted to take a break from the offspring series. Mix things up a little.

The Seattle Art Museum had placed dozens of A-frame signs around the park, reading: OUCH! Even the lightest touch harms the art. Help the art survive. Please do not touch. Now we are all for protecting art, but most of these sculptures were painted steel and robust. They had stood outside corporate headquarters in major cities and were not as fragile as announced. So we wanted to introduce a sculpture to the park that people couldn’t resist touching. We wanted to import something that was painted steel and demanded consideration. Our sculpture looked a lot like a swing set. And to make sure people knew that it was indeed a sculpture and not a swing set, we paid an homage to Rene Magritte’s famous painting “Ceci N’est Pas Une Pipe.”

We employed the students of Seattle University art professor, Ken Allen, outfitted them up in PDL jumpsuits and hard hats. Practiced with them to set up the steel components in record time. It all happened so fast. An hour to be precise. A museum staff person told us that if we didn’t take it away, it would be immediately thrown away. She did not have a sense of humor.

But an hour was enough to provoke and challenge. We saw a mother try to explain to her child that they could not play on the swing set because it was not a swing set, it was a sculpture. We saw kids who just ignored our fake A-board signs and swung without care. But really, what was it? A sculpture or a swing set? And how come pigeons and seagulls can poop on sculpture all day long but we can’t reach out and touch something that inspires us? Is it really that wrong?