Arnie Zimmerman, Inner City

Arnie Zimmerman, Sculptor
Tiago Montepegado, Architect
Inner City, an installation of approximately 200 figurative and architectural ceramic elements, encapsulates the human condition. In this epic narrative of urban growth and decay, men engage in activities ranging from the grandest of feats to the most repetitive aspects of everyday life as they build buildings and carry out mundane chores. The ceramic sculpture is the work of Arnie Zimmerman (American, b. 1954), who has collaborated with architect Tiago Montepegado (Portuguese,
b. 1970) for the exhibition design.

Zimmerman has lived and worked in New York City for more than twenty-five years, observing its changing streetscape with a mix of awe and regret. His work, rooted in the myriad details of ordinary urban experience, seems playful. But a close look at Inner City’s diminutive tenements, skyscrapers, and construction workers reveals signs of something amiss as individuals brawl or tumble down I-beams and dumpsters overflow. This cautionary tale about gentrification and our waning connection to history suggests the glory and suffering of manual labor and provides a metaphor for the heroism or folly of craftsmanship and creation itself.
Montepegado lives and works in Lisbon. For this presentation of Inner City, he conceived of a ramp with a viewing platform which allows visitors to survey the panorama of the sprawling urban grid. Two different versions of Inner City have been shown in Europe — at Museu da Electricidade in Lisbon (2007), as part of the Lisbon Architecture Triennial, and at Keramiekmuseum Princessehof, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (2008).