Public art is controversial because, well, it’s outside

THE ARMCHAIR MAYOR COLUMN — Kamloops City council seemed perplexed yesterday as to why the newest piece of public art is controversial before it’s even been installed.

Coun. Nellie Dever wanted to know why council didn’t have the final say on a new sculpture that will be erected at the ISC roundabout. It’s called Rivers.

Her colleague, Arjun Singh, noted that every time a new piece of public art is commissioned, it becomes controversial. He wasn’t sure why.

And Pat Wallace recalled that the City was once asked to buy a “coloured cow.”

I don’t remember that particular coloured cow, but I do remember a plan to install cows at all the downtown street corners. And then, of course, there’s the Fafard bull, which was at the centre of its own controversy in 2003-2004.

The answer to the question of why public art is controversial is this: it’s public. As in very public. It’s outside, where everybody can see it.

Everybody’s an art critic, so when they have to walk or drive by a piece of art all the time they’re more likely to have strong opinions. People have strong opinions when they see art exhibits inside galleries, too, but there’s not nearly so many of them.

When you’re standing around with a glass of wine staring at something somebody claims to be art, during a gallery reception, you tend to be in a more receptive mood, too. As opposed to thinking about your tax dollars as you pass a sculpture outside.

Public art is touchy stuff. Back in 2004, an artist named Michael Hermesh won a contract for a statue at a Penticton roundabout. Frank was a bronze rendering of a nude man carrying a briefcase.

Poor Frank had a rough time of it. His penis was vandalized, he was painted green, and there was a public uproar over public nudity. I offered to solve the problem by giving Frank a home in front of our own City Hall. I thought taxpayers might appreciate the humour of it as they emptied their pockets on tax day.

Mayor David Perry was not amused. However, Frank didn’t stay in the roundabout. He eventually found a home at a Penticton winery. A couple of years later, Hermesh won a court settlement for $14,000 to cover expenses for repairing Frank’s vitals.

Here’s the thing: if a sculpture is going to include a penis, keep it inside. Frank would have stirred a bit of interest in the safe confines of a gallery but outside in the traffic he was just too much for the public to take.

In Kamloops, we have no human nudity in our public art, yet, though with some of the abstract pieces it might be hard to tell. However, there was giant controversy over the wildfire memorial statues in front of the Civic Building, in part because gallery director Jann Bailey wanted a bronze bull there instead.

That bull has all his parts, but the controversy wasn’t about his privates (livestock nudity and human nudity being two very different things), it was over where he should reside. After much public debate, the wildfire statues went where they are now, and Joe Fafard’s bull went to Riverside Park.

The statue of Flyin’ Phil Gaglardi was controversial because of Phil himself, even though it was commissioned with public donations rather than public coffers.

After Rome, installed at 2nd and Victoria last summer, got its own share of critical comments, as have the several pieces at various locations in Riverside Park.

My view of public art is that it adds a great deal to the beautification of the city. It creates a sense of place and of serenity, and interest. At worst, it’s decorative. Some of it is bound to be junk, but it brings art to the people, and that can’t be a bad thing.

And, it’s nice to have something to talk about besides the weather.