isamu noguchi playscapes

ART interview and photography by JOHNNY LE interview with DAKIN HART, senior curator at the NOGUCHI MUSEUM, NEW YORK city playgrounds are like urban islands: isolated places to escape noise, work, and stress, and not only for kids. the legendary japanese-american artist felt this and invested great creative effort in designing playgrounds while blurring the lines between sculpture and swings, jungle gyms, and teeter-totters. yet only one noguchi playground was ever built in the united states — the atlanta playscapes, where we sent a photographer to shoot a covid-deserted masterpiece. JOHNNY LE — The impression I had, seeing Isamu Noguchi’s Playscapes at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, was of fundamental shapes interacting with their environment. But, Moerenuma Park in Sapporo in Japan is much more of a fully realized, maximalized environment, where his desires were realized to almost their fullest potential with his friend, the architect Shoji Sadao. DAKIN HART —…