“You Are Here” is a common phrase. Every time you go to a new place—in a new city or country—and are in need of situating yourself within your new context, you look for the map that has those three recognizable words to situate you within space. To be “here” is a relative term, meaning that you are not elsewhere - not in time, nor in space. It is common to think about “here” as purely spatial in its meaning, but in fact it is also temporal. “Here” and “now” are synonymous because if you are in a place, you will not always be there, but are only there for a brief moment in time.
The Physics of Being (‘HERE’) is a public artwork which allows viewers to contemplate their own existence in relation to others across both space and time. For example, when people are taking and posting photographs of themselves, their friends and family with the installation, they’re announcing to the world that they are “here”, and those viewing the photographs are not; likewise, when looking back at photos of themselves, the work marks their past self at the public artwork, as different from their current self in the future. In doing so, the work highlights the relationships between those experiencing the work, and those seeing documentation of that experience; between Bentonville and other towns and cities across the nation and the world; as well as those in present day Bentonville, juxtaposed to those of its past as well as its future.
In remembering all those times that we have seen “You Are Here”, and in seeing the exaggerated scale of the installation, we recognize that we’re standing on the map: be that of the city, county, state, national, as well as the globe, in addition to the timeline of humanity. In that moment of awareness we can understand that here is a place and a time, not better nor worse, but nevertheless unlike any other. In this recognition, the work brings an awareness of the need for building relationships with all others, through an empathetic understanding of those who are not—or not yet—“here”.
The Physics of Being (‘HERE’) is a public artwork which allows viewers to contemplate their own existence in relation to others across both space and time. For example, when people are taking and posting photographs of themselves, their friends and family with the installation, they’re announcing to the world that they are “here”, and those viewing the photographs are not; likewise, when looking back at photos of themselves, the work marks their past self at the public artwork, as different from their current self in the future. In doing so, the work highlights the relationships between those experiencing the work, and those seeing documentation of that experience; between Bentonville and other towns and cities across the nation and the world; as well as those in present day Bentonville, juxtaposed to those of its past as well as its future.
In remembering all those times that we have seen “You Are Here”, and in seeing the exaggerated scale of the installation, we recognize that we’re standing on the map: be that of the city, county, state, national, as well as the globe, in addition to the timeline of humanity. In that moment of awareness we can understand that here is a place and a time, not better nor worse, but nevertheless unlike any other. In this recognition, the work brings an awareness of the need for building relationships with all others, through an empathetic understanding of those who are not—or not yet—“here”.
The Physics of Being ('HERE') was commissioned by the city of Bentonville / Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission; designed and constructed by Justin Tyler Tate on-site at 28th Street / Creekside Park in Bentonville, Arkansas; during 2025.
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Staggs, D. (2025, May 25). New art installation at Creekside Park in Bentonville. Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2025/may/24/new-art-installation-at-creekside-park-in-bentonville/
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