Art, damn it, art! watch (#56 in a series)

(Been a while since I’ve done one of these, hasn’t it?)

The Austin City Council has decided (based on a recommendation from the city’s Arts Commission) to “deaccession” several pieces of public art.

The big news is: one of those pieces is “Moments”. If you live in Austin, you know “Moments” better as “those blue panels bolted to the overpass wall on North Lamar Boulevard”.

“Moments” caused a stir from the beginning. It was the city’s first art-in-public-places project to be installed along a road, and its installation caused traffic backups. The piece was meant to evoke impressions of the moments contained in an experience or environment, Jean Graham, a city of Austin art in public places coordinator, told the American-Statesman at the time.
“The designer was thinking, well, you could think of the moments going by as you are waiting under the bridge in traffic,” Graham told the paper in 2003.
In [Carl] Trominski’s [the artist – DB] submission for the piece’s creation, he wrote that the site “is visualized as a Threshold between the Urban Austin and the Natural Austin. The underpass marks a journey through the city’s self-image. … This proposal intends to strengthen the expression and experience of this moment.” The signs were to “make abstract reference to musical notes, the motion of a row on Town Lake, and acts (as) a shadow indicator of the day’s progression.”

“I thought it would be fun to do something that people could ignore and not even notice,” Trominski told the late Statesman columnist John Kelso in 2006. Trominski, who beat out about 30 other entrants for the art project, continued, “I had no idea people would get angrier at that than they would at the traffic.”

For the record, the other artworks being taken off the list are…

… “Karst Circle” at Austin Fire Station 43/EMS Station 31 on Escarpment Boulevard; “Bicentennial Fountain” at the entrance to Vic Mathias Shores between South First Street and West Riverside Drive; “LAB” along the Lance Armstrong Bikeway from MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) to Airport Boulevard; and the Republic Square Fountain, which no longer exists and formerly was located at Republic Square Park.

Here’s a presentation with some photos of the art, if (like me) you were unfamiliar with these pieces.

Fountain is no longer exists. During recent renovation of Republic Square Park, it was thought to be a design element, and was removed. AIPP was not informed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2020 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Art, Austin, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Art, damn it, art! watch (#56 in a series)”

  1. Lawrence Person says:
    December 10, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    “The piece was meant to evoke impressions of the moments contained in an experience or environment, Jean Graham, a city of Austin art in public places coordinator, told the American-Statesman at the time.”

    What a festering load of horseshit.

  2. RoadRich says:
    December 11, 2020 at 3:54 pm

    All it evoked for me was ‘someone put up traffic signs and the dumbass forgot to add the letters.’ They have a DOT standard look to them.

    …specifically Special Route Markers meant to be Guide signs (blue with white accents) in Chapter 7 of TxDOT’s Sign Guidelines and Applications Manual. Examples exist on page 7-14 (Special Route Marker), page 7-24 (indicating Emergency Services facilities), 7-46 (Historical Markers), and 7-51 to 7-52 (Rest Area).

    If that hasn’t gotten you all excited about roadway signage you can also look up Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), currently in revision 2 of the 2009 edition. Ooo, page 301 embodies the spirit of ‘All General Service signs and supplemental sign panels shall have white letters, symbols, arrows, and borders on a blue background.’

    I’m such fun at parties.