Jefferson Center Apartment Homes

in Austin, Texas funded a national call for artists through the Austin Percent For Art commission for a sculpture to activate their property and incorporate several community spaces.

Mark collaborated with artist Kevin Garber of Fishing Creek Studio to create Ringers, a massive game of horseshoes in action that greets visitors at each entrance to Jefferson Center. The whimsical collaboration features twin 17’ sculptures at an accurately scaled 1"=1' recreation of regulation horseshoe gear, transforming viewers and surroundings to miniatures. The traffic circles become part of the game, covered with river gravel to represent the sand in the horseshoe pit.

"The idea was influenced by a number of sources – Gulliver's Travels and the Lilliputians, Paul Bunyan and his tall tales, Texas and its larger-than-life persona and Klaes Oldenberg, the modernist who turned everyday objects into monumental sculpture."

Ringers specs:

Medium: Polychrome Steel

Dimensions: 20’ H x 6’ W x 6' D

Completed: 2002