Public Art Is More Of The Former, Not Much Of The Latter
(I’ve been meaning to post something about this for more than a year. I can remain silent no longer.)
I don’t want to hurt the feelers of the artist who drew up the public art on display on downtown highway pillars ‘neath Woodall Rodgers (at Maple-Routh Conn.) and ‘neath I-45 (at Main St.). But I can’t imagine he or she looks at the project and says, “Yep. That’s some of my finest work.”
My theory for the steel, Tetris-like wraparounds is that there were leftover materials from a nearby construction project … in 1982. Someone thought, “Give me a handful of rivets and I’ll give you a masterpiece.” And perhaps there were still slivers of cross-cut steel remaining, and the artist(s) decided to use them as a sort of gateway into Deep Ellum. But paint them shiny blue and green first–you know, to represent the vibrancy of the neighborhood. Oh, and why not throw in a trompe l’oeil on the three overpasses? You could make a blue orb. Neat! Ugh. Downtown Dallas is allegedly on the brink of forefrontitude of architecture and art and all things cultural. Can’t we clean up some of this clutter?
Photos by me below.
Next up (someday): Uptown Signage Needs a Redo.
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12 comments
I like the blue orb.
I agree with the post. It feels contrived driving through there. To me it just says “Hello, in case you didn’t know, you’re in an arty part of town. See?”
Houston understands street-art…
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/351195974_66beb22ad9.jpg
I posted a sign that said “Warning: Urban Blight Ahead” on that stretch of Main Street, but then my art was ruined by graffiti. I appreciated the irony, though.
I’d like to know the genius behind the “art” that is being installed on the sidewalks at various intersections e.g., Bryan and St. Paul.
I thought it was just reflective metal attached to the poles so morons wouldn’t drive into them — didn’t even cross my mind that it was supposed to be art.
Maybe if there was a budget of more than 1 dollar for public art in Dallas?
In regards to Houston – that looks more like a tax funded public improvement district than public art
They need to get an Environmental Graphic Designer (hint hint… wink wink… me… cough…) with a good budget and work with some artists/sculptures to create something impressive in some of the parks… not when you are driving by an underpass.
Speaking of bad signs/artwork they need to improve the early 90’s signage in the arts district… talk about bad. Especially since all the new venues are opening that going to even look more dated.
Which uptown signs? I kind of like the giant silver javelins…
it is possible to have real public art…even on oil tanks…and the Dr. J one has always been a favorite of mine, as it depicts him as a man rather than an athlete…and Reaching for a Star is pretty freakin cool
http://www.muralarts.org/
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1649278,00.html
On the other hand, kudos to the owners of the National Sports Lounge on Greenville (formerly Nicks Uptown and Red Jacket) for uncovering Dan and Mae Hitch****’s terrific mural of James Brown. They used to have several murals around town, on blank walls, all of which were painted over sadly.
It took me awhile for it to register that that was actually art and not some sort of patchwork structural support for a failing bridge.
It’s very slightly heartbreaking.
the big blue orb is such a powerful statement the Richards Group decided to make an entire campaign on it and put dots all over the abandoned downtown buildings and subject us to the sleaziest ad campaign ever… “Have you found your D spot?”