Hyperreality in Tosa

In Wauwatosa - or just plain Tosa as is more often said - Hart Park shows us that hyperreality can give us everything we want, and more. But it can't blot out some of the more mundane elements

of landscapes we might like to forget. We can have trees emerging from rock formations that give us the option of either stairs or an escarpment for summiting and our choice of twisty or straight slides for the down climb. We can play in caves and half finished canoes formed from the trunks of impossibly large hardwood trees. Neither the trees will rot nor will the rock formations erode. 

Moreover, a hyperreality playscape allows us to engrave these impossible objects with dedications to donors and inspirational texts to highlight their connection to real things - like poetic thoughts - in the world: after all, few of us will ever encounter a hollow log large enough to walk through. 

Because these landscapes are an amplification of reality controlled by designers and town officials the masquerade can be dropped when necessary in order to reference the undeniably real historicity of the town itself. Here a sculpture inspired by Alexander Calder and Joan Miro, perhaps, attests to the 200 year history of Tosa. The sculpture is a reminder that we're here in the municipal present despite the efforts to convince children that they're in the unfinished project of the pre-tamed wilderness, a project abandoned and left for them to finish, like the oversize canoe.

Quietly in the background, the Menomonee River trickles by camouflaged by wild flowers, untrimmed weeks, and scrubby shrubs. This prairie reality enhances the deeply buried knowledge that all this furniture and its whimsy is make-believe. The wild creek bank reminds us that there really is a wild reality out there to be discovered as our plaything or place to discover or both.

Yet further in the distance polished chain stores anchor the reality that this suburban area, like most, is founded upon convenient access to basic necessities. Pick'n Save will sell raw and prepared goods,

Applebee's will provide hot starches, fats, and alcohol to cut the grease; and ATI Physical Therapy will help you put yourself back together after taking in the amenities of Tosa's suburban hyperreality.