Hemphill-Lamar Connector Public Art Artist Dan Corson
by Joel BurnsOne of my reasons to arive ahead of the group Thursday was to get to see first-hand some of the public artwork of Seattle-based artist Dan Corson. Dan was recently chosen to provide the public art component of the planned Hemphill-Lamar Connector, which will create a new connector street that runs under the railroad tracks between Lamar and Hemphill, creating a new link between the southern end of downtown and the Near Southside. (For all Fort Worth Capital Improvement Projects, 2% of the budget goes toward a public art installation.)
Dan toured me around his works. One was the Sound Transit Project, which consists of over 200 Overhead Contact System poles in Seattle’s streetcar system with specialty paint and spire-shaped finials. At a maintenance facility, the poles are striped with black and “safety green” paint. The artwork is inspired by a prehistoric plant indigenous to this region – commonly known as the horsetail or Scouring Rush. Elsewhere, slender curved poles along a transit line feature tips that gracefully curve and blend the dark poles into a metalic sky blue and then to a silver tip. All the tips point west towards Puget Sound.
Another installation we looked at was the Rave Wave Cave, a dark underpass transformed with animated pea gravel-covered waves that erupt from a sculpted sea of pea gravel. At night, moving “psychedelic” lighting animates the space.
We also looked at the Antennae Reeds, an installation at the University of Washington featuring tall aluminum poles with resin tips illuminated by sapphire LEDs at night.
I also got a chance to see his studio near the University of Washington. Dan has done works from Seattle to Florida, and is known for his use of simple yet dramatic shapes and vivid nighttime colors. Unfortunately, since my tour was during the daytime, I did not get the full effect of some of the lighting components that are integral to much of his work. Check out corsonart.com for more of Dan’s work.
I am excited to have someone of Dan’s creativity coming to design a landmark project in Fort Worth.
More to come!
Joel Burns
Tags: art, Joel Burns, public, sculpture
12 Comments, Comments or Pings
John Peter Smith
God that stuff is incredibly ugly. It pains me to think that junk like that is going to be installed on Cowtown’s streets. It pains me even more to think that my tax dollars will be paying for it.
Oct 3rd, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
JPS,
I think the red pikes with the blue tips are kinda cool, as are the blue-tipped bent poles along the streetcar line. The rock wave thing and the bright yellowgreen poles, though, are a little out-there for me personally.
The tax thing is a whole other debate, I suppose. I do support trying to make what would otherwise be a smothering underpass into something more interesting.
Oct 3rd, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
I also like these, from the artist’s site:
http://www.corsonart.com/gallery/album50
http://www.corsonart.com/gallery/album34
http://www.corsonart.com/gallery/album48
I will be curious to see what he comes up with for the Hemphill-Lamar Connector.
Oct 3rd, 2008
John MacFarlane
Please, let the residents of FW vote before anything goes up like the photos above. Yes, they are state-of-the-art and progressive like Seattle. However, FW is more laid back than that and more “western” in style (I am not a cowboy or country by any stretch of the imagination).
But, before anything is decided, let Dan submit a few ideas and let us vote. Or at least, let the city council vote with input from their constituents. This will be your district Joel, so let us help you with the decision. I will drive that new tunnel at least 2 or 3 times a week when its constructed.
@JPS, I have no problem with tax dollars going toward public art, in fact, FW needs more of it. It should just be tasteful and somewhat “normal” so a majority of the people can enjoy it.
Oct 3rd, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
John,
Are you familiar with the planned sculptures on Lancaster - the “Avenue of Light,” the swirling plates of metal cut into Art Deco patterns? I was told that one of the other artists who submitted a proposal actually wanted to do a string of giant cowboy sculptures all down Lancaster.
I’m rather glad that Cliff Garten’s Avenue of Light won instead. I think that playing off the western thing is fine in moderation, and that it’s great for the Stockyards, but that we ought to try different things elsewhere. IMHO of course.
Oct 3rd, 2008
T&P Tom
I’m emerging from “Lurkdom” to make a brief comment regarding the criticism of this artist’s work.
Let me first say that a public vote on the art to be installed would, in my opinion, result in only the most mundane of creations.
Second, please consider the following quote “[It] was called, among other things, “a belfry skeleton”, “a truly tragic street lamp”, “a half-built factory pipe, a carcass waiting to be fleshed out with freestone or brick, a funnel-shaped grill, a hole-riddled suppository”, and a “mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed”. Yep…you guessed it…the Eiffel Tower.
Now do we expect our own “Eiffel Tower?” I doubt it. Just food for thought….
Oct 3rd, 2008
sirius_girl
check out the Fort Worth Public Art program’s website to see how the process works.
http://www.fwpublicart.org
John and JPS will be pleased to know that Mr. Corson was chosen through a democratic process by a selection panel of representatives from the community including artists, art professionals, the city council representative and his community representative. Council members are always integrated into projects planned in their district,
The artist will likely make presentations of his proposal in the coming months. Get involved by attending public meetings.
and don’t forget, one man’s “junk” might be another man’s treasure.
I suspect that Corson will bring something intelligent and elegant to the corridor.
Oct 3rd, 2008
John Peter Smith
I did not intend to sidetrack the discussion of art with my comment about tax dollars. However, since a couple of people made reference to it and it does refer to improving the quality of life here in Cowtown let me add a thought.
The whole scheme of dedicating 2% of capital improvement projects to public art is a cowardly, sneaky, deceitful way to finance public art.
We always hear people say how important public art is to the quality of life of a city.
Fine.
Let those supporters come before the City Council at budget time and make their case. Let our representatives prioritize spending on public art along with other basic city services. If public art is truly as important as proponents claim they should have no trouble convincing the City Council to fund it. But for crying out loud folks we’re talking about a city that just shut down its Health Department and has libraries shutting their doors to anybody that has to work a regular job. Do we really need green-striped poles in our street medians?
Oct 3rd, 2008
Suzette Watkins
Oh how I love the fiscally conservative voice of JPS, let me count the ways. Right on Brother! Who does decide how our money is spent…do the Council members really have that much say or is it just the Mayor and City Manager telling them what CFW is going to spend money on?
Oct 4th, 2008
Recyclican
@ JPS - what would be interesting is to see how city departments propose the budget for capital-improvement-projects.
Whether they a) have a fiscal limit and budget accordingly - taking in to consideration the 2% public art fund, or b) budget themselves for their project accordingly, and add 2% on top of their budget for public art.
Regardless of either method, it’s hardly deceitful, cowardly, or sneaky; however I’d like to think they include the 2% in their initial budget, instead of tacking it on at the end.
Oct 4th, 2008
sirius_girl
as far as I know, the Public Art program was decided by the citizens of Fort Worth. Maybe not the folks on this thread, but some that took the time to get involved.
I remember plenty of opportunities for the public to learn about successful Public Art programs across the country. Seems like there were lots of public meetings both geared towards informing local artists, art lovers, urban enthusiasts, historians and regular folks about the benefits of improving the looks and cultural texture of a city. And of course, council votes on everything from the budget to the workplan to the contracts with artists. It’s a city program!
What brings folks - with their spending money - to a city?
The reason I go to NYC is to visit the museums, visit Central Park, eat, shop, walk, and enjoy a culture so totally unlike my hometown. I love it that I can visit a beautiful green space in the middle of the chaos. I love it that I can check the history of a place by the decisions that create an environment. Public Art has done that for other important cities and will do it for this one too.
You might have to stretch your imagination to put a dollar figure on how Public Art brings folks to town, but just like the Herd brings folks and their money to the Northside, Public Art bring can something special to every district across the city. It’s a history in the making.
Careful before you toss idea of investing in something that has the potential to bring big dollars to the city, to business owners small and large and to bring positive attention to our city.
Oct 4th, 2008
John Peter Smith
sirius_girl
While it is technically true that the 2% for public art was part of the deal, here’s the actual wording of the ballot taken from the city’s own website:
“THE ISSUANCE OF PUBLIC SECURITIES FOR STREET IMPROVEMENTS IN THE AGGREGATE SUM OF $150,000,000.00″
That’s all the ballot said. Now true, it is up to citizens to inform themselves of the issues so that they can make informed decisions. However, there is also a moral obligation on the part of those in charge to avoid misleading or incomplete wording on ballots. The council failed to do that and that is sneaky.
Also, the 2% art was bundled into the same proposition as spending on streets. So what the City Council asked the voters was this, “Do want to borrow some money to fix up the roads? Oh, and by the way maybe get some art too?” Considering the state of our streets in Cowtown it comes as no surprise that most voters said yes.
Had the City Council placed the art spending in a separate proposition, as they could have done, the vote total might have been quite different. So I stand by my statement. The 2% art spending project was handled in a deceitful manner.
Also, please note that the city is funding the art through the purchase of bonds. That means the city is BORROWING the money to buy this art. This at the same time it is cutting back library hours and laying off employees. What responsible family that is struggling financially and having to cut expenses goes to an art gallery and puts a sculpture on their credit card? Yet that is exactly what the city is doing thanks to this stupid funding mechanism.
I don’t really disagree with any of your observations about the value of public art. My complaint is with the underhanded way the city has chosen to pay for it. You make a very eloquent argument for the value of art to a city. But if it is so valuable, supporters should have no trouble convincing council members to fund it. Public art spending should have to compete for the city’s resources each budget year, just like the library, parks, community centers, and other city services.
RECYCLIAN:
Actually city departments routinely propose far more bond spending than the council ultimately approves. So I would say that the 2% is deducted from necessary projects.
Oct 5th, 2008
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