The Arts

On a bright, cold Sunday afternoon, the opening weekend of the Seattle Art Museum’s new Olympic Sculpture Garden, my dog Parker took me for a walk among the grand, new additions to Seattle’s waterfront. Parker is an eleven-week-old, yellow-labrador mix–a puppy really–still not fully in control of her bladder, but she is surprisingly conversant in the area of contemporary art. What follows are exerpts from her commentary:

DANIEL Rumor has it that you actually liked the Olympic Sculpture Garden (OSG) contrary to some of the comments you’ve made recently.

PARKER What comments? Who’s been talking? Was it the cat? You can’t trust cats, you know.

DANIEL Did you not say that the OSG was a missed opportunity for Seattle, and that choosing second-rate work by internationally known artists was just a timid attempt by SAM and her patrons to get taken seriously in the international art community?

PARKER I didn’t say any such thing. What I said was, choosing to include Richard Serra’s "Wake" was about as daring as an outing to a Medina dog-park; it may have seemed like a nice idea at first, but when confronted with the reality, the well-behaved blandness of it all was a dissapointment.

DANIEL Can you explain?

PARKER Sure. And let me be clear, Serra’s work is not the only culprit in this debacle, but he is arguably the most well known artist of the bunch and provides a convenient jumping-off point. For instance, let’s do a run-down of the work in the garden; Kelly’s "Curve XXIV" an immitation of his 1970s work: Caro’s "Riviera" 1974; Pepper’s "Perre’s Ventaglio III", 1967; Nevelson’s "Sky Landscape I" 1983; di Suvero’s "Bunyon’s Chess", 1965; Calder’s "Eagle" 1971; Smith’s "Stinger" 1968 (’99) and "Wandering Rocks" 1967. See the pattern?

DANIEL You’ve just listed an internationally known roster of talented, brilliant and influential artists.

PARKER Right. But it is also a list of artwork–8 out of the total of 16 sculptures on view at the OSG–that were made over 30 years ago. 30 years! It is also a list of sculpture that has been easily digested, is equivalent to decoration, and appears to have come out of storage [aren't they mostly Virginia Wright's? or are they the Shirley's?] only to be plopped down in the middle of a lawn.

DANIEL In all fairness, Nevelson’s piece is just over 20 years old, and frankly, I find your lack of gratitude offensive…

PARKER You’re missing the point. Here we have an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the history of art, or at the very least ‘art in public places’, or less heroically, to the unique character of the city of Seattle, and what have we done? We have simply imitated hundreds of other cities in this country, made a list of well-known artists and/or took any and all donations we were given by the old-guard, art patrons of Seattle, and plopped them down in the middle of some million-dollar real estate on the waterfront.

DANIEL But as you must know by now, the reaction to the Garden has been overwhelmingly positive. The paths are crowded even on weekdays, and the Garden is getting rave reviews from all across the nation.

PARKER And Mussolini was a hero to the majority of Italians in the 40s…

DANIEL That’s not entirely true, nor is it a fair comparison. It is ridiculous.

PARKER I’m hungry.

DANIEL You’re not tracking, Parker.

PARKER No, but consider for a moment even the most contemporary work on view here–aside from the Serra piece. Roy McMakin’s "Love & Loss" 2005, appears to be an advertisement for his design firm, and Teresita Fernández "Cloud Cover" 2004-6, looks as though a group of b-tier, mall architects had a little money left over after construction and asked themselves, "Hmm. What would spice up an outdoor hallway in Seattle? I know! Colorful clouds!"

DANIEL Fernandez received a MacArthur "genius" award!

PARKER Did you bring any treats? I’m really starving.

DANIEL So then I take it my information was wrong. You do not like the OSG after all.

PARKER Actually, quite the contrary. I do like the garden. But just the garden, not the sculpture.

DANIEL What do you mean?

PARKER Just stop for a moment and look at the space! This is an urban dog’s dream; grass–fresh cut grass–and wide open spaces. WEISS / MANFREDI Architecture did an outstanding job creating a park from this waterfront wasteland. The dreamy zig-zag path, the seamless bridge over Western, the integration with the beach and all those STICKS!–oh, and did I mention the views? Just fabulous. And now that they’ve seasoned this feast-for-the-eyes with a little art, I’ve mapped out my rest-stop routes to most of the smaller sculptures, and found the ideal corners on which to leave my mark.

DANIEL Very nice.

PARKER Actually, there is one sculpture I like. No, love!

DANIEL Let me guess; Roxy Paine’s "Split".

PARKER What’s not to love? A 50 foot stainless steel tree! This piece should have been placed on the crest of the hill where Calder’s "Eagle" sits. It could have been iconic, emblematic, a picture-postcard installation symbolizing the bright, technological future of Seattle, not to mention art in the landscape. The piece is so simple even a dog could get it.

DANIEL So would you consider the Olympic Sculpture Garden a success or a failure?

PARKER I’m not able to make sweeping generalizations like that. I’m a dog. A hungry dog. What I can say is that regardless of what I think about the art, the politics, and the ‘future of art in Seattle’, I will still use the space on a regular basis. And like most of the dogs in this city, after the initial fracas is forgotten and all that is left is a park with some structures to climb, tag, or piddle on, I too will say to my best doggie pals, I kinda like this place after all, don’t you?

Now please give me something to eat before I piddle…

via my Journal