Jorge Pardo Folly

,Folly' is one of Jorge Pardo’s most ambitious architectural installations to date as well as the second Grove Commission, Public Art UHS’ flagship temporary public art program at the University of Houston. It is a site-specific response to Wilhelmina’s Grove, one of the last original wooded areas remaining at UH.

Pardo describes ,Folly' as “… a group of paintings…a little building…amongst some trees…a folly…” Folly debunks traditional views on follies as purely ornamental structures that lack utility. Pardo’s intent is for the work to heighten the capacity to “structure to our looking” across the wooded space it inhabits. At the same time, he treats the interior as a vast canvas, folding in his ubiquitous palette of vibrant colors, dizzying patterns, and dramatic lighting elements. In this sense, Folly produces great visual delight yet, conceptually, it also begs us to question the distinctions between fine art and design.