SATURDAY EVENING POST: The Reinvention of an AIDS Memorial in New York

On a corner of Greenwich Avenue where the frenzy of Midtown yields to the quieter cadence of the West Village’s historic streets, a flame decommissioned just a few years ago will soon be lit again.

On June 20 at 3:00 p.m., the New York City AIDS Memorial will unveil Eternal Flame for Scott Burton, a major new public commission by artist Oscar Tuazon. Featuring drag performances, music, and floral installations, the event is less a traditional unveiling than a gathering beside a memorial designed to speak as much to the present as to the past.

The work reimagines a piece by sculptor and performance artist Scott Burton, whose practice in the 1970s and ’80s blurred the line between sculpture, furniture, and social space. Burton’s benches, chairs, and table-like forms were never meant to be viewed at a distance. They were meant to be sat on, lingered with, folded into everyday life — an ethos of use and connection that animates the new work as well.