Lexington, KY - A two-ton, 30-foot-long, eight-foot-high sculpture constructed of reclaimed materials was recently unveiled as part of Lexington's newest temporary public art project. It is titled Recovery and was conceived, constructed, transported and installed by Patrick Toups, a candidate for a master's degree in fine arts from Georgia State University.
Toups' largest and most ambitious work to date is one of six in the exhibition organized by the University of Kentucky Department of Art, the Art Museum, LexArts and the South Hill Group. Now positioned as though it were here to stay, Recovery invites us to consider a pervasive topic even in the realm of public art: sustainability.
What does "sustainable" mean in the context of public art? In the most recent issue of Public Art Review, curators, critics and public artists weighed in with responses that are dizzying and complex. The most pertinent, as is the case with most issues relating to public art, are those discoveries found in local circumstance. In other words, the best answers are generally found right at home.
Here at home, for the next nine months at least, Toups' massive work of art and its nuance present an opportunity for us to examine not only the public art of sustainability but also the sustainability of public art in Lexington.
According to Kathleen Walsh-Piper, director of the Art Museum at UK, nearly three years ago funding from the Efroymson Fund, a donor-advised fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, which has a particular interest in supporting campus partnerships, was secured as a means for the art museum and art department to collaborate.
That funding fueled the installation of one of Lexington's finest permanent works of public art, Coal Pot by El Anatsui (located in the museum's sculpture garden on the corner of Euclid and Rose), as well as two artist residencies for a summer sculpture program.
Once the details were decided for this residency, the art department approached the South Hill Group, a relatively new real estate holding company founded by Bill Lear and Jim Phelps, to discuss the possibility of accommodations for the visiting artists.
The two groups discovered common ground at Cigar Flats, and the project blossomed into an inaugural event complete with a public art exhibition that ties the temporary installation (most of which was located within the South Hill historic district) to the permanent works of public art located on campus.
The common ground: reclamation.
Public art of sustainability
Cigar Flats is a new, contemporary redevelopment housed in the original Bluegrass Cigar Building located at 420 Lawrence Street. It is an adaptive reuse, incorporating reclaimed materials that include bricks from the old Blackhorse building downtown, white oak that was dredged up from the bottom of the Tennessee river, and old barn doors. This architectural marvel, the creative vision of Robert Trujillo, is host to all the sexy buzzwords in the dialogue on sustainable building practices.
Toups' Recovery, which might now be considered the projects' signature work, is situated on the lawn outside Cigar Flats. His sculptural investigations generally begin with location and incorporate discarded materials.
Toups chose to use railroad timbers that he observed over the course of a few months. "My observations gave way to a new concept behind my large-scale work," said Toups. From between the large cracks in the timber, little plants had begun to grow, and "the next logical step was to add what I call a 'growth element' to my work. Ö Now, my work speaks of a different kind of reclamation: the act of nature reclaiming manmade form."
Together Recovery and Cigar Flats unite art and architecture into a collective statement that rings loud enough to register in the clamor that defines Lexington's ongoing battle with urban infill and redevelopment, but also gentle enough to impact the renaissance of our urban center.
In a recorded interview with Trujillo, he admitted that the collaboration was highly beneficial to the South Hill Group, suggesting that along with a genuine interest in sustainable urban development, it has resulted in an increase in sales of the condominiums.
"We had a buyer from Seattle that came and said, 'How do we reward you for your interest in art and your saving these buildings?' And he said, 'The only way I can think of is by buying it,' and so they are buying our product."
Cigar Flats and Recovery are both meant to be inhabited. However, at present, Recovery will be removed just before the flush of spring in Kentucky and at the sculptor's expense.
Sustainable public art
While permanent installations of public art are on the rise in Lexington, the temporary exhibition seems to be growing in popularity. How does the temporary exhibition impact our goal of forming a sustainable public art program?
According to Jim Clark, president and CEO of LexArts, "Temporary projects are necessary to build up awareness and help the public develop a taste for contemporary public art. It also provides artists opportunities to experiment with materials as well as subject matter. It also helps them understand the public process of working with neighborhood associations and government - very different from working independently in a studio or gallery setting."
True, but haven't we learned those lessons? Isn't it time now to embrace works of art like Recovery as they hold game-changing possibilities for the future of public art in our city? After all, this entire exhibition demonstrates that we, as a community, are ready to embrace art as something more than gluing sequins to the belly of a fiberglass horse.
At the root of sustainability is a delicate balance in our expenditure of resources of a particular area. I wonder if too many temporary public art exhibitions have the potential to upset that balance. LexArts' most recent press release keeps flashing before my eyes - "Sponsors Stampeding to Hugely Popular Horse Mania 2010." Or perhaps we are still in the process of identifying all of those resources.
Clark has said many times that a sustainable permanent public art program requires an organizational structure that knows how to work with community groups, government and the public on issues of how the artists are selected, government approvals, public safety, liability insurance and ongoing maintenance.
That has proven to be a long process and is likely to take more time to formulate. In the meanwhile, what we need is commitment and accountability from the private sector, so that projects like Reclamation can conclude in a manner that begins to build our awareness of the public-private model in public art. We need a buyer. We need a champion. That would certainly yield sustenance.