Archives for 2007

The image trap in public art is the administrator's, the curator's or the committee's dilemma, not the artists. (Of course, many artists do play.) The trap drops when a particular work is required to be a significant symbol for a place, a time or a people. So many writers have analyzed the invention of symbols. I don't have the background to comment on simulacre or metaphor. Sincerity or … [Read more...]

If I recall correctly, the Seattle artist Jim Pridgeon had a concept to create a drawing in sky by unrolling a ___ mile long reflective mylar sheet in the lowest level of orbiting satellites around the earth. Depending on the time of day, the drawing would be more or less visible. Most visible at sunset. At a global scale, Pridgeon's sculpture would capture and redirect (reflect) the light of … [Read more...]

Artist Christian Moeller is completing "Mojo", an interactive public artwork in San Pedro, California, 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. The developers of Centre Street Lofts funded the vulture - and the creepiest public art in 2007. Clearly, Moeller steps on every fear of surveillance: 1. a generally unsafe street at night, 2. potential attack by a thug or stalker in any neighborhood, … [Read more...]

The exhibition website starts with: "Ethics is the true axis of the gathering that will attempt to link Art and Politics with Poetry, Ecology and Technology." For the first time, I love getting old. In my mind, I join these artists at the southern most city on the planet at the end of nowhere - Patagonia. Although I might be disappointed if I hopped on an airplane for Ushuaia, Argentina, I … [Read more...]

A few months ago in Fort Lauderdale, landscape architect, Walter Hood of Oakland, California, present his work. Never heard of him, but the Design Arts speakers had been excellent at Broward County Cultural Affairs in the last few years. Hood sticks with me. Especially his recognition of the "overgrown" from the people on the Phillips community near Charleston, South Carolina. According to my … [Read more...]

I pulled all 15 arbitrary issues of Landscape Architecture Magazine still on my office shelf published between 2005 and 2007. Here is what added up for Public Art. 1. Seven Issues with Public Art covers. (Almost half) 2. Full length profiles on artists Maya Lin, Brad Goldberg and Stacy Levy. Moerenuma Park by Noguchi 3. Reviews of major public artworks, in collaboration with landscape … [Read more...]

Plagiarism was the topic on C-SPAN's BOOK-TV, March 31, 2007, rebroadcast a panel discussion held at the 2007 Chicago Humanities Festival. The old simple idea of claiming someone else's work as your own is not so simple anymore. Federal Judge Richard Posner laid out some legal theory about plagiarism in the age of growing copyright powers. (Ironically while stealing his book title, 'The Little … [Read more...]

Across the world on the English typing internet, various human beings have engaged in cataloguing public art in their communities. These are mainly volunteers even if a few people can spend "company time" working on the project. Please send me more volunteer sites at gw@glennweiss.com 100% SELF FUNDED Philadelphia Art I far as I can tell Chris Purdom is just a guy with a hobby who has … [Read more...]

Florida is hot (not hip) and humid (sensual too.). To succeed outside, the designer must know where the sun is all times and how best to find some breeze. These are very serious issues for the success of any outdoor space away from the beach. Together with the extra water that feeds the more luscious plants and trees than the other Hollywood, the careful designer can use nature to tweak - a … [Read more...]

Just a Quickie Check out the brutal assault on Fred Kent and the Project of Public Spaces (PPS) in the March issue of Landscape Architecture. The magazine opens with a generic panning of his method in the articles section by Linda McIntyre then concludes with the assault by Laurie Olin in the Critic at Large. Very rare thing in professional circles. The landscape architects are completely … [Read more...]

What do architects bring to the urban landscape? Primarily ignorance of all the rules. At least the best do. In the other Hollywood, north of Miami Beach, Margi Glavovic Nothard's Young Circle Arts Park opened on March 16, 2007. I wish she could upstage Weiss / Manfredi's Olympic Sculpture Park the way that Gehry's Guggenheim at Bilbao pushed Meier's Getty to the back seat. But like Bilbao, … [Read more...]

In the mid-1990s, I visited a scary Johannesburg. The hotel had non-uniformed armed guards carrying guns. Drug dealers were on hand. Unlike other parts of South Africa, everyone spoke of the dangers after dark. Yet, art went on. I can see in my memory a black man and a white man playing tennis inside the main dining room of Jo'burg's abandoned historic prison. During the performance, the men … [Read more...]