Alan Greenberg’s well-loved sculpture Up House Down, which children and adults scrambled over and enjoyed at the Abington Art Center Sculpture Garden for the past 10 years, was torn down yesterday.
The off-kilter ramp and play house with surprising angles and points of view–disguised as a backyard play structure–was easy enough for a child to engage with, and thoughtful enough for an adult mind to play with, making it a perfect public sculpture, perfectly sited.
But time destroyed its integrity, undermining its underside with rot. No longer safe, Abington and the artist decided together to destroy it.
Abington Curator Amy Lipton said Abington and Greenberg were discussing the possibility of his creating something new for the garden.