*Mechan 14* still under construction at Tyler FuQua Creation’s studio in Oregon

You are invited to join Norman Arts and the City of Norman for the dedication of Mechan 14 — a public artwork by Tyler FuQua Creations (TFC) —at 9 a.m. Tuesday, December 5 at Reaves Park, 2501 Jenkins Ave, Norman.

The towering robot creation will greet visitors to Reaves Park and become the latest, iconic piece in Norman’s burgeoning collection of public art. Mechan 14 is the sixth piece of public art made possible by the Norman Forward 1% for Art program, with more on the way in the months ahead.

A Request for Qualifications seeking artists to create the piece went live in August 2022 and garnered more than one hundred submissions from artists across the country and beyond. Three finalists were selected with TFC ultimately chosen to create the work that felt like the perfect fit for the use of the park.

TFC has created a number of robot sculptures (called Mechans) that dot the country and have also been seen at the likes of Burning Man.

For a unique spin and reflective of Reaves Park’s history of hosting youth baseball as well as the Medieval Fair each spring, Norman’s Mechan comes with special accessories that allows it to be transformed from a helmeted ballplayer holding a bat to an armored knight armed with a sword on a seasonal basis.

More about Tyler FuQua Creations

Spearheaded in 2007 by Tyler FuQua, TFC is made up of a handful of skilled and talented people from the Portland, Oregon area. Tyler, having gotten started by making giant puppets with what was lying around his house, had set his focus on building bigger and better things with each new creation. In addition to joining forces with Jason Hutchinson, a fellow creative builder, Tyler surrounded himself with a crew of amazingly creative and hardworking people that now make TFC way more than just a one man operation. They are always looking for new and exciting opportunities that push our creative abilities.