In the 1980s, when physical contact and touch were laden with fears, Burton made works that proposed social forms of contact—such as gathering, loitering, waiting, meeting. He did this by insisting that his sculpture be touchable and offer physical support. His works solicit and allow bodily use. They do this repeatedly, and they model a generous promiscuity in their willingness to embrace each passerby. They are made so that one might press one's body against them, backing on to them into poses where one no longer visually regards the object but can nevertheless feel its solidity from behind. Whereas most work s of art maintain a threshold of distance across which viewers are told they cannot touch, Burton's works break those boundaries and invite real bodily engagement.
In a new essay, art historian David Getsy argues that by creating moments of contact and presence in community, Scott Burton's furniture-like public sculptures countered the early AIDS epidemic's prevailing culture of fear and erasure.
Sculpture for being in public [greg.org]
