Urban Art Projects (UAP) is a company co-founded and co-owned by twin brothers Daniel and Matthew Tobin. Photographs by Nick Hudson. The only clue that something marvellous happens in Rock Tavern, near Beacon, a 90-minute drive north of New York City, is the presence of a few Frank Stella sculptures perched by the roadside. The sheds themselves are stubbornly nondescript, the kind of hangar-sized industrial buildings you drive past without a second glance. But if you were to stop and peek inside, you’d discover the artistic equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory here. Instead of a river of chocolate, there is a foundry producing rivers of molten bronze. Instead of a Lickable Wallpaper Room, there is a White Space with works like Agnes Denes’s “The Debate”, a dark cube containing skeletons engaged in some kind of morbid conversation. In another room cluttered with workbenches, an Academy Award is sitting out, newly minted and still waiting for the name of its winner.
This sprawling studio complex is part of Urban Art Projects (UAP), a company co-founded and co-owned by twin brothers Daniel and Matthew Tobin. Originally established in Brisbane, UAP now has facilities in Brisbane, Shanghai and here in the Hudson Valley, New York, plus offices in a half dozen other locations around the world. The company collaborates with artists, designers and architects to realise almost any creative vision, in nearly any medium, particularly for public art installations.
“Public art has been part of the human story since things all started,” says Dan Tobin in a conference room overlooking the busy workshop floor. Think of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, he says, or the Statue of Liberty in New York: “Aside from the amazing craftsmanship that it takes to make those things, they come embedded with layers of history.” What he means is that UAP is more than just a manufacturing company; it is dedicated to creating history and meaning for communities through art. Dan and Matt point to the Australian Waanyi artist Judy Watson, a long-time collaborator. “She’s thinking about the memories of her people, telling their stories. Being able to help her make that work is pretty cool,” Dan says.
Among other projects, UAP is responsible for carving Watson’s six-metre-tall shell hook sculpture, “bara (Monument for the Eora),” now erected in Sydney’s Botanic Gardens. The team has also worked with Reko Rennie on those large abstract eels emerging from Parramatta Square. Internationally, the list of collaborators is dizzyingly long, from the Roy Lichtenstein estate to Ai Weiwei. Each commission is different, presenting its own set of challenges for the company’s artisans to overcome. Dan calls it “the tyranny of bespoke projects”.
This is a short extract from our “Structure” issue.
To read the full story purchase a copy of T Australia straight from our online shop. You will find it on Page 62 of Issue #20, titled “Making It Big”.
