Dan Peterman's "Running Table"

Dan Peterman’s one hundred foot long picnic table considers issues around consumption and recycling. Made from the equivalent of two million recycled milk bottles, the table is simultaneously a product of consumption and an invitation to consume more as visitors sit down, relax and enjoy their own lunch at the table. Like a picnic bringing people together, the table reminds visitors of the communal social purpose made possible by individual actions.

The table was first installed in 1997 in the area of Grant Park now Millennium Park. It was accompanied by Peterman’s Chicago Ground Cover, the open-air dance floor used for Chicago SummerDance, also made from recycled plastic. The floor is now in Grant Park’s Spirit of Music Garden at 601 S. Michigan and was recently expanded to 4,600 square feet to accommodate more dancers.

Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, artist Dan Peterman’s work explores issues around recycling and ecology. His specialty includes making art out of recycled plastic, producing mottled grey or green bricks and timbers that he uses to fabricate tables, benches, parquet floors and storage boxes. Peterman received his MFA from the University of Chicago in 1986 and continues to live and work in the Hyde Park/Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. He currently teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago and helps run the Experimental Station, an “incubator of innovative cultural, educational, and environmental projects and small-scale enterprises.”