reviews, features & interviews
Endangered species–public art at PA Convention Center
By libby
August 21, 2010 · 8 Comments
When people bark about the threat of a public art void at the Convention Center extension (see Stephan Salisbury’s article in today’s Inquirer here), they seem to be all over the place on just what they mean by public. For instance, art inside the building? That is not public. I don’t think too many Philadelphians ever get to see the so-called “public art” in Convention Center part 1.
Mei-ling Hom, China Wedge, 1994, inside the PA Convention Center; image borrowed from http://www.nyu.edu/apa/ford/works.htm#Mei-ling Hom
If you check out the Convention Center website, the art that’s inside is not mentioned, or if it is, I couldn’t find it. The sad truth is no one buys a week of conventioneering in Philadelphia because of the art inside the Convention Center. The purpose of the website is to sell convention space.
Google is barely more effective finding images of art at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. A couple of pieces come up, but buried deep in the onslaught of images. Google Judith Shea and St. Louis public art comes up, but not Philadelphia public art. Mei-ling Hom’s China Wedge is super-successful as a piece of public art–it’s understandable to a broad audience, it’s elegant and it’s witty. It, too, took a bit of hunting on Google. So did the Judy Pfaff, which doesn’t nearly begin to dominate the huge hangar of Reading Terminal.
It’s not that I think there shouldn’t be a public art component to compensate us Philadelphians for the way the state imposed on us this horrible building which totally deadens a major segment of the streetscape in Center City. Yes. We the Philadelphia public deserve at least some sort of bold public art component–on the street–paid for by the state and I’m not talking about a mural.
Furthermore, the amount of money has to be substantial. We have far too many public sculptures done on the cheap, with cheap results.
Unfortunately, the public art component (should we be lucky enough to get one) would have the Herculean task of enlivening the Convention Center dead zone, providing a sense of place and a sense of public ownership–a sense of public interaction with whatever is there. For a public sculpture to be meaningful to visitors, it first has to be meaningful to the people who live with it, i.e. all of us Philadelphians. So if I raise my voice for public art, I am raising it for the exterior, for the streetscape, for my fellow citizens on whom the monstrosity building has been perpetrated.
And I am raising my voice for enough money so the artist can build a dream project and still pocket some money.
As usual, when money runs short, art gets cut. Next time, just cut the building and build the art, pay the artist, and serve the public for a change.
Tags: china wedge, mei-ling hom, pennsylvania convention center, public art
Readers Comments (8)
Have you heard about the purposed Oldenburg that is going up across the street at Pafa? It is a giant paint brush that will loom over Broad Street. If Oldenburg lived in our fare city I would think this giant phallic brush was poking fun at everything that is slightly out of touch and unimaginative about the Academy but I am afraid it makes him look just as of touch. The drawings made for it look like it should be a bad logo for a local arts and crafts store. Thank you for raising your voice for public art; I hope that the decision makers at the Academy start listening before this goes up.
Hi, Joseph, I do indeed know about the brush, and yes Oldenburg intends it as a poke at traditional art. He said so himself! The sculpture seems a little simplistic, and now that the plop of paint part of the sculpture is under revision, we really don’t yet know what we’re looking at in toto. I must say I must be a chorus of one in liking the lit-up paint brush top, a sort of Statue of Liberty lamp. I think it’s funny. But there’s something stealth about what ultimately works its way into people’s hearts and is thereby successful as public art. The jury will have to be out on this one.
Who administers/care-takes the artwork at the Convention Center? Anyone know? Is it the State Museum Commission? If so I completely understand why it’s under-served and under-represented. They have enough trouble keeping the art collection at the State Museum from descending into chaos…not to mention making up for all the bad bureaucratic shadows on the place. I worked there for a bit, so I got a taste of it.
I had always suspected that Oldenburg intended his works, when rendered as proposals for city projects, complete. Just imagining such whimsical and preposterous monuments was joke enough. When they were erected literally, he must have savoured the irony all the way to the bank. I don’t really mind the totem homage to that most elegant mechanical device. Whoever created those monstrous stick people who cross I95 to Penn’s landing, I always suspected, were sheet metal workers commissioned by city insiders who charged the city handsomly for the ( imposter) “ART”, paid union scale for the job, and pocketed the fat, filthy difference. Same for the not really impressive metal sculpture of Ben Franklin at the foot of the Ben Franklin bridge.
Putting Oldenburg”s ‘”Proposals For City Monuments ” into actuality, is like answering a knock-knock joke with the correct name.
how public art gets chosen is a big part of the problem,far too frequently the choices are made by a small inner circle.we in philly have more public art than most places,the choices are good or bad based on your perspective.The fact is we should have even more than we do.
I vote for a better process. How much is who, how much is how? Beats me. A lot of those people who choose are pretty smart. Some shouldn’t be involved. But whatever the cause, we know that Chicago has a better track record. Why can’t we duplicate it?
Good question. I can’t believe it’s the city. I am going to see if I can find out.