Artsramble Archive

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November 16, 2006
Kellough on Plensa
by Jim Kellough, Durham Artist
Can someone tell me who 'selected' Jaume Plensa ? I went to the his presentation at the Nasher, Durham, late October. Some of his slides were really Interesting, falling somewhere in the Big Middle of the Top Two Thousand artists doing Public and Art Fair art, right in the Jonathon Borofsky-Dennis Oppenheim Zone. He was an articulate presenter and it made me think perhaps that the Europeans (along with George Rousse at the Nasher in Sept.) give more poetic Art Talks than American Art Stars. After a while his work started looking dorky :: It's not hard to imagine one of my students saying :: "I'm going to make a human figure with a skin of letterforms !" When he indicated that his best and most famous work [the so-called Chicago Lincoln plaza video.people.portrait.wall.with.waterfall ] was a big hit with children, [show slide of happy wet children ] he added that he thought the water interest in the Raleigh proposal would work the same magic. I thought :: 'Wait a minute. I'm not taking my children to downtown Raleigh to play in the water in a traffic island. What if some wino asked my wife for a quarter?' '
Thinking about the Raleigh City Manager/City Council's concern about the line of sight between two landmarks and that the planned overhead twinkie lights and aerial light beam looked EXACTLY LIKE the Tingly Line Attractants used by Softhearted Bob at his used car lot in Los Vegas, Nevada, I began to wonder if maybe Plensa's analysis of the site and public needs of Raleigh might have been his problem. I wondered if the people that selected him had neglected to help him find more useful design criteria. His proposal for Raleigh was a mess of a pastiche of electronica catalog gadgets . At the end of his talk, he said that the people of Raleigh were ignorant of contemporary art. Is he saying that our museums and institutions have failed in their mission to educate the public about modern art ? I think not. I say :: good riddance, Jaume, who needs you ?Inside the Nasher now is a big Jaume Plensa Buddha made of translucent silicon and covered with sayings from children's books. It glows with changing colored lights. I like it. It reminds me of those inflatable orbs that have swirling snowflakes seen in the Christmas display at Home Depot. Go see for yourself.