Common Picnic:
Halo-Halo Edition

INSTALLATION BY ARTIST RISA PUNO

Common Picnic: Halo-Halo Edition is an interactive outdoor installation by artist Risa Puno, designed for communal meals, lounging, and play. An evolution of Puno’s original Common Picnic (2015), the piece on the waterfront at Brookfield Place features a series of interconnected picnic tables that reflect the experience of living in a crowded city where one often shares personal space with friends and strangers alike.

This new colorful version is inspired by ‘halo-halo’—a layered Filipino dessert made up of vibrant ingredients like tropical fruit, sweet beans, and ube ice cream, each with its own cultural origins—whose name literally means “mix-mix.” Just as ‘halo-halo’ combines many flavors into one dish, Common Picnic: Halo-Halo Edition celebrates the joyful blending of people and experiences. By inviting visitors to interact in shared public space, it embodies the Philippine concept of ‘kapwa,’ a deeply shared sense of self that unites and connects us to one another.

Image at top: Risa Puno, Common Picnic, 2015, photo by @talismannyc

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Risa Puno is a NYC-based sculpture and installation artist who uses interactivity and play to help people connect more openly and easily. She has exhibited with national and international organizations, including: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, New York; Rose Kennedy Greenway; Boston, MA; The New Children’s Museum, San Diego, CA; and Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. In 2019, she was selected by Creative Time for their inaugural Open Call award and was named FIGMENT’s first ever Interactive Artist of the Year. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, ProPublica, and The Boston Globe. She currently serves on the NYC DOT Art Advisory Committee and on the board of the Black Immersive Creators Grant. Puno grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and she studied art and medicine at Brown University in Providence, RI, and earned her MFA from New York University.