Oscar Tuazon has created "Eternal Flame for Scott Burton," a functional sculpture for New York City's AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent's Triangle, set to be unveiled on June 20. The work reimagines elements from a 1994 public commission by the late sculptor Scott Burton for the Sheepshead Bay Fishing Piers in Brooklyn, which had decayed and was decommissioned after Hurricane Sandy. Tuazon used salvaged materials from Burton's original installation, including perforated steel benches and lamps, to build a circular metal bench topped with a light-emitting pole. The project was supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and several foundations, and was facilitated by the city's Parks Department and the gallery Olney Gleason.
This installation matters because it restores a lost chapter of New York's public art legacy while honoring an artist who died of AIDS at age 50, bridging generations at a memorial site that is both a place of remembrance and a living cultural space. Burton, who blurred the lines between high art and everyday utility, saw his pragmatic furniture as having a political dimension tied to his identity as a gay man of the Stonewall generation. Tuazon's reinterpretation underscores the ongoing relevance of Burton's practice, affirming the AIDS Memorial as a site where art, civic engagement, and memory converge.