Blog – Art in Odd Places

By Zoe Weitzman

Gather ye rosebuds, my readers! College freshmen are raiding Bed, Bath and Beyonds, sweaters and jackets are awakening from their seasonal hibernation, and we’re all enjoying the afterglow of Labor Day. After three lackadaisical months, summer is coming to an end.

Like our feathered friends, public art will soon be migrating someplace warmer in the winter. We still have October’s Art in Odd Places festival to look forward to, of course. But lest September become an insipid, colorless month, I offer you aesthetes a little salvation.

This is my eleventh hour list laundry list of 5 public art wonders that won’t be around come December. Each piece was erected in late spring, so it’s up to you to lend them some eyeball time before their impending expiration dates. And if you’ve already come across a few of these structures (I’d be surprised if you haven’t noticed the towering ketchup bottle in City Hall Park) I promise, you wont regret a second or third gander when they’re gone for good.

More than just a random smattering of this summer’s public art, these works are symptomatic of some of 2012’s more salient trends and themes. They toy with monumentality, and endeavor to balance historically-informed humor with sober reverence for the individual.

So, without further ado, I bring you five large-and-in-charge summer sculptures by some real artistic big fish. Each artist chose to bypass museum institutions (and their $14 admission fees) and offer their work to the city on a silver platter – so why not reach out and grab it before it’s too late?

Survival of Serena. Please excuse the shoddy quality of my iPhone photos.

Carole Feuerman’s Survival of Serena – Petrosino Square. On view through September 23. Presented by Parks and Recreation.

Carole Feuerman’s supersized, hyperrealistic portrayals of the be-goggled and bikini-clad have launched her into the pantheon of contemporary sculpting greats, and Survival of Serena is no exception. Feuerman introduced the piece at the 2007 famed Venice Biennale; the works title, apparently, makes references to Venice’s pet name, La Serenissima (the most serene). An earlier painted resign rendition of the sculpture received “Best in Show” at the 2008 Beijing Biennale. New York is lucky to have it.

Perched on a landlocked city square, Survival of Serena gives high art a below-sea level twist. The painted bronze sculpture depicts a larger-than-life, droplet-dappled woman clinging to a life preserver. Her eyes are closed, but she’s still communicative. Feuerman lets us fill in Serena’s narrative. Does her face read quiet desperation and an Odyssean will to live? Or has Serena come to accept her lost-at-sea fate? Head to Petrosino Square before September 23, and you can decide for yourself.

Daddies Ketchup.

Paul McCarthy’s Daddies Ketchup – City Hall Park. On view through November 30. Presented by the Public Art Fund as part of the “Common Ground” exhibition.

If you’re hungry for a more epicurean spin on public art, look no further than City Hall Park. In the tradition of Oldenburg-ian inflatable eats, sculptor McCarthy has fashioned a 30-foot bottle of Daddies Ketchup, based on real British condiment brand (overseas, it’s apparently as ubiquitous as Heinz).

Installed in City Hall Park as part of the summer-long exhibition, “Common Ground,” Daddies Ketchup probes us to rethink the role of classical public sculpture. McCarthy inserts a distinctly patriarchal bottle of ketchup where a more orthodox, male figure might stand. He asks, provocatively (but not too provocatively – the piece sits in Bloomburg’s backyard and the exhibition was under his purview) how just the sizes and settings of public monuments tacitly ennoble and masculinize those depicted.

The Andy Monument.

Rob Pruitt’s The Andy Monument – 860 Broadway, Union Square. On view through September 4. Presented by the Public Art Fund.

Gandhi and George Washington have had some company this summer. Union Square effigies of both men are sharing the downtown spotlight with a chrome-sheathed Andy Warhol. With his Levi’s 501s and now-extinct Polaroid camera, Warhol has added a little 70’s-era flair to the popular tourist spot.

But according to sculptor Rob Pruitt, The Andy Monument is more than just supersized salute to generations past. He imagines the piece’s raison d’être as two pronged: both signpost and memorial.

First and foremost, the piece functions as a sort of 10-foot tall, anthropomorphized plaque. Pruitt’s pseudo-Andy shepherds uniformed tourists towards his illustrious studio and Factory, located in both the Decker Building and 860 Broadway. But The Andy Monument also serves as tender tribute to Warhol’s revolutionary artistic ideology and unabashed embrace of the commercial; hence, the sculpture’s Medium Brown Bag from Bloomie’s and Brooks Brothers blazer. Pruitt understands Andy as “a beacon that brought people to New Yor k,” and certainly entitled to an urban homage, however temporary.

Chorus.

Kiki Smith’s Chorus – 46^th and 8^th. On view through September 4. Presented by the Art Production Fund.

At large, Kiki Smith’s oeuvre is characterized by its monochromatic palette and Kafkaesque subject matter. In her new installation, however, Smith has set aside the doom and gloom to make a big, bright, Technicolor reference to Times Square. Entitled Chorus, the multipart, stained-glass piece sings the praises of bygone starlet Josephine Baker in a loud, Broadway soprano.

To Smith, “Baker’s past amplifies many of the social political problems of the United States.” Baker rose to fame in the 1920s as the first African American film star and international burlesque performer. With sobriquets such as the “Creole Goddess” and “Black Pearl,” Baker is known exploiting Caucasian crowds’ implicit orientalism.

Simultaneously, Smith’s material choice of stained glass pairs together the 20s-era emphasis on “spectacle pageantry” with aesthetically colorful but morally ascetic medieval period. The stained glass also interacts with sunlight – her freestanding, multicolor starburst cast tinted shadows on the empty lot’s dirt surface.

Movimento Clasico.

dEmo and Luca Missoni’s Movimento Clasico – 14^th and 9^th. On view through September(?)

Finally, a piece to warm the heart of the most persnickety of gallerinas. Kooky Spanish sculptor dEmo has paired up with the Missoni Empire’s middle child, Luca, to marry haute couture with classical art. In honor of Madrid’s Fashion Night Out in 2010, the dastardly duo outfitted a scale model of Michelangelo’s David (yes, that one) head to toe in Missoni’s signature chevrons.

Movimento Clasico wandered through Spain before roosting this summer, appropriately, in the arts-and fashion-filled Meatpacking district. This new, trendy David will serve as an apt patron saint for New York’s Fashion Night Out festivities on September 6.

by Bryanne Leeming

The text in our lives can be inescapable at times. As soon as children reach literacy, they are swept into a dustpan of billboard ads and popups. Sometimes there can be so many that we drown them all out and treat the words as meaningless images, as if reading an unknown language. Linda Hesh, an emerging artist from Washington D.C. has found a way to use text as a simple tool to challenge our everyday life. One word placed purposefully on a bench can make viewers stop, think, reflect, and question the status quo. Her text is bold, and her art is bolder.

AIOP: How did your artistic career begin?

Linda Hesh: In junior kindergarten I remember overhearing the teacher behind me saying to my mother, “Linda is really good at art,” and it wasn’t a surprise in my family. My father was a men’s fashion illustrator. My mother was a seamstress and made all her own clothes. Then later, my father switched to own a bar, and he built the entire interior himself.

A stranger poses on a “Bench that asks your opinion” stating that he supports emerging DC artists.

AIOP: Can you tell us more about the “Benches that ask your opinion” project?

Linda Hesh: I had done some commercial products before like mugs, T-shirts, and bags with text on them, and then I did the doorknob hangers, and of course I realized that when I put them on the street people were going to take them. Then I realized if they were going to take them anyway, I should let them photograph the hangers and use them in their own art. I got a little response with that on blogs, but then I realized that maybe not everyone wants to interact with art, or they are not as motivated to do it themselves, so I thought of doing something where I would take the photographs but they will have some response for me, and that is how I came up with the first benches which were “For and Against.” I did those in September before the 2008 election because everyone was talking about the election and what was going on in the world at the time. I had the benches made by a commercial company and the “For” was a turquoise color and “Against” was red. I wanted really bright colors so that when I took them around, people would respond to the color first. And that’s what happens: people see the color, they are attracted to it, and then they notice there’s a word in it. Then, of course, they want to come up and find out, “What is this doing here?” so there are several steps involved in the interaction.

I always start out by saying, “This is an art project,” then I would say “Would you like to tell me something you’re for or against?” So I start out with them just writing something down and then I ask them if they would like to pose on the bench and tell me what they are for or against so that I can capture their portrait.

The “TRUST” and “DOUBT” benches were created in September of 2009, with just enough time after president Obama’s election to help and challenge public opinion.

Then, in 2009, I proposed doing a bench for the city of Baltimore. Obama had just been elected so I decided to do “Trust and Doubt.”

“Trust” is ultramarine blue, and “Doubt” is orange. Because we had just elected the president, which was a momentous occasion, we wanted to trust him, but we had doubts because the economy was so terrible, and we didn’t know what was going to happen. Now they are up in Washington D.C. for 6 months.

I just started taking these benches around Washington D.C. without real permission from anyone (laughing), and they are six feet long and made of steel!

AIOP: How were you transporting them?

Linda Hesh: A Honda Civic! I know, it sounds totally crazy! As artists, we sometimes come up with these ideas, and we don’t necessarily think of the easiest thing to do, that’s not our motivation! Then, afterwards we figure out, “Okay, now how am I going to do this? What will the plan be?” So you first design the piece, then you work out the gory details later.

AIOP: What were people for or against?

Linda Hesh: I had never done this before, so I had no idea if anyone would even say anything to me. I was really amazed because wherever I set up, about half the people who walked by stopped to write something down. That’s a really high percentage!

The other thing that happened is people took this really seriously. Almost like if this were their one wish, what would it be. And this was totally unexpected to me that people would be so into this and spend so much time thinking of what they wanted to write down. And it was anonymous; they didn’t even write their names on it! Nothing was going to happen with this piece of paper, but they spent time thinking about it.

There was a wide variety (over 300 photographs online). People said they were for world peace, poverty, and social issues, and against racism or debt. Then, of course, someone said they were for yogurt or chocolate. People went both ways, from very serious to lighthearted.

A young participant poses on the “AGAINST” bench with a strong opinion on vegetables — one of the more lighthearted responses.

AIOP: What is significant about using text in art today?

Linda Hesh: I am influenced by the change in how we communicate i.e. more writing than talking on the phone, even if that writing is not the most intellectual form. And I am influenced by how everybody seems to want to bare their souls, or at least every detail of their lives on blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. We seem to have developed a need to constantly announce what we are doing and feeling to this ‘all-attentive’ listener that is the Internet. That is why I use extreme statements and seemingly simplistic opposing words like TRUST and DOUBT. We are constantly talking and though we may not be saying that much most of the time, the fact that we feel we must be constantly reaching out does say something about our society today.

AIOP: Do you put a lot of thought into deciding what text to use?

Linda Hesh: The question with text, at least for me, is always, “Serif or Sans Serif?” It’s more of a feeling; I don’t really have a theory behind why I choose a text for certain things.

AIOP: Would you relate your art to advertising in some way?

Linda Hesh: Advertising is designed to get us to buy something, but is really designed to change our behavior in some way or make us feel good about ourselves. You buy this, or do this, and you’ll be better, more beautiful, more intelligent, or people will like you. It’s pervasive; it’s all around us. That has to do with using text. It has invaded our entire life!

AIOP: What behavior are your benches trying to change? What ideas are they selling?

Linda Hesh: I think just the fact that there is text makes people think in words when they look at the piece. Normally, when you look at a piece of art, you would have more feelings. But the text in my pieces automatically gets a response from people because if you have “TRUST” and “DOUBT” in front of you, you immediately start thinking, ‘What do I trust? What do I doubt? Are those things in opposition? Are the things I trust the opposite of the things I doubt?’ It immediately makes people connect to their own lives, which is something that advertising tries to do as well. Advertising gets people to connect a product to their life, but I’m not trying to improve or change anyone’s life. I am trying to get them to think about something for a moment, even if it’s only a moment.

AIOP: What is the message you want to get across with your art?

Linda Hesh: I’m looking at social issues. I am examining social issues myself, and by presenting them, I’m hoping that other people will also examine them for themselves. There is always a sense of humor in my work as well. I think a sense of humor makes a really good access for the viewer by disarming them because even if it’s not a serious issue, it’s looking at it from a different viewpoint.

AIOP: What is the appeal of public art for you?

Linda Hesh: If you’re doing something about social issues and you put it up in a gallery, you’re probably already preaching to the converted. If you can get it out to the public, people who don’t go to galleries, then you’re presenting the ideas more than challenging it. Public art not only reaches out to those people at that moment, but it tends to lead to more viewers. When someone poses for me on a bench, then they are likely to later look at their picture online and see other portraits to see what other people are “FOR” or “AGAINST,” what they “TRUST” or “DOUBT.” This personal participation means they are more likely to show their friends the picture of the bench, which opens viewership even more. The pictures get used as Facebook portraits too. An interactive public art work affords a larger viewership than a traditional gallery show, which means that more people end up thinking about the issue. It’s a snowball effect.

Public art is the perfect medium for messages that deserve to be heard by many viewers. Linda Hesh uses techniques of advertising to shed light on social issues in this way.

To see more images of the 300+ portraits of people posing on the “Benches that ask your opinion” click HERE.

Summer Art’s Last Hurrah

Advertising Opinions with Linda Hesh