Josh Callaghan
Social Block

What originally brought about Social Block?

In every yard or empty lot, you find that forgotten corner where a few old cinder blocks get thrown. I wanted to scale up that overlooked space by shifting the relationship between the viewer and the blocks to create an interactive social environment.

What interests you about CMUs [concrete masonry units]?

They are so ubiquitous, global...and invasive. Like many of my projects, humble and banal objects and materials become central concerns (e.g. pigeons, peach pits, and refrigerators). It sounds a little crazy, but there is some impulse to have empathy for these mass-produced blocks. I want to find the humanity in these things.

So much of your work is about municipal space and dealing with public space objects. What motivates the infrastructural references in your work?

I’m drawn to these places and things because they are a shared vocabulary, a connection I have with the viewer. Municipal space says so much about people, our culture, and values...I have a background in cultural anthropology, so the observation of “social behavior” is directly reflected in my work. Making sculpture is very satisfying, it activates reality. There is a lot of life energy embedded in sculpture, and I think the viewers can pick up on that, and relate to it... seeing themselves in these things. I want the artworks to distinctly mark out a new space in the viewer’s consciousness through something very familiar.

It's incredible that they allow your piece to be there, in the center of this sacred Manhattan street. How did that come to be?

Night Gallery submitted the installation [as a Public Art Presentation] for the 2021 Armory Show. The Armory orchestrated the connection with Flatiron Plaza, and then the installation was approved by the city.

Wow. The city approved that? Amazing! (laughs)

It was all [organized] through the art fair. But honestly, Night Gallery did almost all the work... it's kind of a miracle that it actually happened.

Did you have to cast the blocks on-site?

No, I cast them here, in Los Angeles.

Wow. No way. So you shipped them across the country? 

Yes, yes. (laughs)

I thought you made them because of the quality of the pieces—there are no sharp edges.

I tried to make them look weathered...

...but also safe. That'd be the risk of regular [cinder] blocks; people cutting themselves on the corners. But you can play on these! We were all over them and they felt soft in a way, which is hard to do with concrete. But you use a nice aggregate. The mix is pretty good.

Thank you. I was just so happy that you got to see it because you're actually one of the people that came to mind as an ideal audience. I tried to get the concrete mix to be like that of cinder blocks but scaled up. I used a volcanic rock aggregate to get the right look. They are unreinforced concrete, just like real cinder blocks, inside and out. Though they have a certain fragility, they are also very stable and could last thousands of years. The blocks are a nod to ancient Roman unreinforced concrete work. Modern reinforced concrete is so temporary, the steel eventually corrodes and fails.

I noticed these long blades of grass in the astroturf around the installation. Did you do that?

Yes, I added fake plants to the astroturf (laughs). Originally, the astroturf was mandated, but I ended up loving it. Then I put in fake weeds as a kind of set decoration. New York is so verdant in the summer, you expect to see stuff growing [around the city]. I thought it would be funny to play with the fake grass and weeds, and maybe make people question whether or not it was intentional. “Why is this fake plant here?” “Is this a real weed sprouting up?”

I mean, I thought the weeds were real. My first thought was that they were coming up from below like the astroturf was being penetrated by the “de-paving” happening within the space.

You almost wouldn't be surprised if weeds actually were growing through the astroturf. The astroturf is satisfying in a certain way; people really needed a little soft space on that stretch [of 22nd Street]. It's a hard environment, you know, “gotta keep moving,” so any type of respite is utilized completely.

I also love the playful disorder of how you arranged the blocks. It feels like the acropolis, the way they arranged the temples in relation to one another, intentionally off-skewed to increase the perspective. That composition creates a nice feeling when everything else is so regimented and harsh and official.

I wanted it to look as if it was somewhat unplanned, and the weeds add to that, like it's a ruin. The acropolis is a great association.

Social Block is awesome because they usually just use a lot of banal, standard furniture [for public art installations.] But with your installation, there were kids climbing through masonry holes and on top of it. People were doing all kinds of interesting things with these objects: posing in different ways, getting up on the high block, laying out between them.

The blocks could make a nice bed if you put two together.

We laid down on them and looked up at the sky. We could see the sky framed by the towers, and looking sideways, the Empire State Building was framed through a cell in one of your blocks. It was such a cool scale moment; your concrete block contained this tower. The blocks could be deployed in so many ways, on other streets and public spaces. They are amazing public furniture.

It would be great to make more and continue to play around in different landscapes. Maybe someday we can see Social Block in public places everywhere!