Art Attack

One way to curtail controversy is to make the decision process more collaborative, so the space is used in the way that appeals to the most people, several public arts administrators say. Another trend is integrating public art holistically into the surrounding space. Gone are the days of "plop art," when works were erected by fiat by a select group of connoisseurs, public opinion be damned. Increasingly, public art is designed by architects to meld harmoniously with buildings or planned spaces. Of course, the risk is that the art could veer into the merely decorative. And the worst artistic offense of all, says Pincus, is blandness.

In Phoenix the contested artwork—as yet unnamed—will go up after all. Residents attended a public hearing saying they loved the floating sculpture, which is a fluid, airy concoction of nets shaped like a flower or, some say, a jellyfish. Janet Echelman, the artist, says controversy is a good thing. "It's good for art to make us think, to give us a shared experience that creates a dialogue, makes us talk to each other, including strangers." So whether they call it hideous or diaphanous, a jellyfish or a uterus, at least there'll be something to whisper about. The stranger the better?

© 2007