In 1992, after four years of planning and work, Tom Otterness's The Real World was installed in Rockefeller Park's playground, at the north end of Battery Park City. The Real World is a map of the world beyond the playground… an imaginative park filled with things to touch and stories to invent. The Real World is a broad social allegory on art and life, where the games of power and control are played out in miniature by Otterness's adorable and cunning characters.

Amidst the towering buildings downtown, the scale shifts dramatically when you encounter the bustling miniature characters on parade along a penny-filled brick path snaking through The Real World. These are the trademark sculptures of Tom Otterness… small people who represent the different economic and social strata of our society. There are blue-collar workers with overalls, white-collar workers with ties, the upper class with their elegant hats, and the radicals - operating outside the system altogether - who are nude except for their pointy hats.

Otterness's miniature bronze characters represent the different economic and social strata of our society.

Otterness's characters are deceptively cheerful; they are part Dr. Seuss, and part Disney, yet possess an undercurrent of conflict and violence. In one scene, as part of an odd parade, a cat is tied up and carried off, followed by a man with a wheelbarrow full of money… perhaps they are sacrifices. A dog chained to a drinking fountain - which doubles as a stepstool - hungrily eyes a cat that, in turn, stands ready to pounce on a bird that is contemplating his next meal… clearly a system of predators and prey.

These bronze cartoon characters are also decidedly subversive; they are monopoly game pieces playing the game of power and control. Resting on two oversized feet, workers nap while another keeps close watch for the boss. In a clenched fist - a symbol of empowerment to the people - a policewoman confronts a worker who is being whispered to by a radical. The central fountain is an allegory of greed gone out-of-control: A teetering tower of Babel for the wealthy, which is under attack by a dinosaur beast. Their leader atop the tower is part Nero, part Humpty Dumpty, part piggy bank, who - when he falls - cracks open and spills out the pennies that were once inside him. In a fitting end, the workers roll the pennies away and construct a symbol of solidarity.

In this playground Otterness's characters perform all life's stories. It is a system of winners and losers, predators and prey.

Tom Otterness thinks of his sculpture as a map of the body politic, a fallen figure. And it is a map that tells stories of the real world beyond the playground… stories about struggle, lust, power, loss, humor, fantasy, and death. Otterness believes that children appreciate the direct manner in which the stories are given to them, without ever being told what to make of it all. It is the real scoop on life without the sugar coating.

Tom Otterness's work can be best described as elaborate vignettes. They are non-linear unedited scenes - or stills - from a non-existent movie, that the viewer must imbue with narration and meaning. His work is a convergence of high art and kitsch appealing to both the art world Brahman and popular culture. Mixing levity and discord, biology and social commentary, Otterness's fanciful world is always vividly entertaining.

Installed on the heels of the highly controversial removal of Richard Serra's Tilted Arc from Federal Plaza, New York City, Otterness's work is approachable and non-defensive. His ability to keep an open dialogue while planning his public sculptures makes his works strongly accepted. As he says: "Negotiation is a normal part of the back and forth nature of public projects."