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This week we have a little bit of little seen public art. It is stashed away behind my local grocery store and in front of the Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center. It is called Prairie Dogs and One-Room School House, by sculptor Judith Stewart.
I go back and forth on this piece. Prairie Dogs are ubiquitous out here in Colorado. While they are an important part of the prairie ecosystem they are also rodents and will take over any field that is not in use, including in the cities. One of the things that keeps them in check is that they carry fleas that also carry the Black Plague. From time to time they will be devastated by the plague, which keeps their numbers down, but it also makes them a minor hazard to humans (minor because the plague is easily controlled by antibiotics).
Still there is something slightly charming about seeing them standing up at the entrances of their burrows, surveying the world for danger. In that way they are like the Western version of the Meer cat.
Personally I think this piece would have been better without the schoolhouse. It is much smaller than all of the Prairie Dogs and while it let the artist outfit one of the animals with a backpack, it just doesn’t add much to the piece for me.
The Dogs themselves are pretty good. The largest one in the back is in the standard pose you see most of the prairie dogs standing in. They two that are touching noses are another common sight with these animals and give a nice Mother and Child feel.
Like I said, I go back and forth on this piece. I think it is nice to have real art at a local Rec Center, but while this piece has some whimsy it falls short to me. The idea that the prairie dogs are going to school just doesn’t work and clutters the piece to me.
The floor is yours.
6 Comments
Public art in our age suffers from having to appeal to a lowest common denominator. While I have made public art and have sat on public art boards and commissions, I am fairly discouraged by this sort of silliness.
I am an elitist when it comes to public art, and this is a losing position. Even though training and a license are required for such important work as cutting dead skin off toes and painting toenails, everyone has “artistic license.” We don’t ask the public to write a prospectus for a bridge or road, we don’t get them involved in the design of it. We leave that to “experts.” As long as art is considered “a frill” we will have this idea that “the public” should be involved in “public art.”
Like I said, I am in a losing position on this issue. The schoolhouse and backpack are absurd. I wish we would graduate from this sad situation, but realistically, that does not seem like it will be possible.
This topic always seems to bring out strong feelings. Is there some public art that you like?
Me? I am not trained in art (well theater arts,but I think that is really different) so I just go with what I think as an untrained layman.
There is plenty of public art that I like. The Denver airport has some good art, for example. There are some collections that are over all very good. Mostly b/c there was an intention in collecting it. There are wonderful examples in most public collections. There is also a lot of drek, IMO.
My takeaway is slightly different. (don’t care for the second photo, backpack doesn’t do anything for me)
But in the first one, I’m reminded of scenes from Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. Gave me a smile in my heart.
Areas that have experienced contracting populations, where it’s common to see a one room school house long ago abandoned, surrounded by the Prairie Dogs, reclaiming the prairie.
I love the prairie. Thanks for sharing !
(and those little dogs, they kind of look cute, but can be cannibalistic, and more often than not, within family units. Nasty little things. The plague does kill humans every now and then. Someone will pick up a dead one, think it’s cute and become infected with the plague.)
I’m with bgrothus: this doesn’t even qualify as whimsey for me. Is there any sign that kids like it?
I have no problem with the subject of the piece, if prairie dogs is it. We have tons (literally) of bronze figures in our public collection, some of it so poorly executed that it makes me cringe. What is more terrible is that our public is so poorly educated on even this 18th c. format that they do not notice the poor quality of some all too prominent figures.
My hometown, the paragon of mid-century modern while at the same time being at the cutting edge of science of the 21 c., has just dedicated some large amount of money to create “statues” of “historic and cultural figures” related to the town. I hope they make a statue that will stand for the Native American women who were the main house cleaners when I was growing up. This is how “close” the town was to that culture.
The anthropomorphism of the prairie dogs is what bugs me. Probably children like it. Like I said, I am in the minority with my view that qualified experts should be more involved in the public art process and the public less.