Posts
Durham 1, Raleigh 0
"The new Durham Performing Arts Center has opened its doors, and a brightly-lit sculpture – visible for miles – was unveiled at Monday evening's open house.
"The sculpture, by noted Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, shoots a shaft of bright blue light straight to the sky," writes WRAL.
Sigh.
"The sculpture, entitled 'Sleep No More,' consists of a 13-foot-diameter disk of aluminum and stainless steel that bears a quote from William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' in raised letters spiraling out from the center. A 7,000-watt beam of light shoots up vertically from an underground bulb through a lens in the middle of the disk, which sits on the ground.
"Plensa created the same space in Chicago."
Oh well. I'm sure Raleigh will come up with some even better, right? RIGHT?!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
If it's a Plensa thing then the NCMA's piece evens up that score at 1 once the expansion opens.
At first, I was all about the 'Plensa Plaza' when it was proposed for DTR. However, thinking more about it, I've changed my mind and don't miss it at all.
I think the roads around the plaza (remember Fayetteville St. must be open to traffic) would have been too busy and would not really create that gathering space as the artist wanted to create.
Also, what kind of lasting appeal does a wall of LED's really have. Yes, LED's are the next light technology but like all tech, it will be replaced. Do we really want a major piece of public art with a 20 or 30 year shelf life? That needs an upgrade later on down the road? I'd like to think that we can create statues, art, monuments, whatever that are meant to last generations. The DTR Plensa project was dominated by the LED grid, a tech that will be outdated in a couple decades. I feel it is not the signature piece we need, especially on Raleigh's (NC's?) main street. Perhaps it would have worked better in another location.
I don't think we need to view this as Raleigh vs Durham. We're more similar than different.
The Plensa piece proposed for Raleigh is very different than what is in Durham. It was way cooler, IMO, but a lot more expensive to purchase, install, maintain, and it took up a lot more space.
FWIW, Plensa isn't the only great artist out there -- he's just a personal favorite of Goodmon. I'd like to see local artists providing their works in these public places -- let's spend those millions locally and leave the Plensa stuff for the NCMA.
You know, in all honesty, I think you're right about it not being a Durham vs. Raleigh thing. That was pretty immature of me. It just stinks that it's not Raleigh that's getting buzz about a nice new performing arts center (I know, I know: we have some great venues of our own) that has world-class art. I certainly hope we can claim our own word-class art downtown very soon.
Thanks for the comments.
I do like the idea of supporting an up-and-coming (or established) local artist. Just got back to NC after 8 years in FL, and it's nice to see all the cultural opportunities in the area. I came from Charlotte, where they spent tens of thousands on bushes in front of the old Coliseum. (!) Would be nice to keep money in the local economy...
As far as this Durham resident is concerned, Raleigh can have the "sculpture". Biggest waste of light pollution I've seen in a while. So much for doing any astronomy in the area.
And, btw, even your comment that mentioned the entire Durham vs Raleigh thing was immature was still too competitive. Are you that threatened by your neighbor?
Is it really art? The mistake Raleigh made was that the original LED sign "art" should have been in front of the Convention Center where it could welcome groups to the center and tell them about what was going on. Not across a street where people would walk into the paths of cars. My 2 cents.
So-called "light sculptures" are horrors, as far as I'm concerned. The "light sculpture" I like to look at is the unsullied, increasingly rare, not-light-polluted night sky. There are so many great reasons to fight light pollution; I'm not going to list them. I urge you to visit www.darksky.org for more information.
Post a Comment