Wanted: artist to titivate Norfolk’s Wards Corner

By Maurizio Catellan 

Ah, public art, the soul of every city.

To my eye, though, most public art is static, not dynamic. It remains a stationary reminder that some times public art can be nothing more than a gratuitous statement to some very bad artistic tastes.

Public art should interact with the public. The soul of every individual should be the soul of the piece, in perpetuity, instead of naked, obtuse and utterly lifeless.

That’s the thing, really: public art should be the living embodiment of the people over which it towers, instead of a frozen and lifeless god. 

By Richard Serra

Public art should engage the viewer, even though it might be the most alien object the viewer has ever seen in his or her life.

Public art must be humanized, since humans are so desensitized, so we can appreciate not only the artifact in front of us but also the artist.

Norfolk, at times a bit Bipolar and other times instilled with flashes of inspiration, is trying and is offering $150,000 to any artist to design a piece of public art for Wards Corner.

The timeline:

Requests for proposals were issued yesterday, Thursday, September 26.

Proposals are due October 31 at 2pm.

In November, the city will announce the winner.

The artist must complete his masterpiece by December, 2014. 

Norfolk’s Public Art Planning Committee will interview three finalists.

Right-of-way areas are very limited, the RFP said. There is a landscaping berm on the

southeast corner of the intersection as well as an area north down Granby Street towards the bus transfer station. The artist may want to consider creating anchor pieces at each location that relate and tie the area together. Multiple works repeated in the medians are also possible.

As for what art merits the $150,000 award, it is the aesthetic value, creativity and contemporary relevance of the proposed piece, the RFP said.

But words such as “diversity of beliefs and values” and phrases such “general standards of decency of the citizens who fund the commission and purchase of public art for the City of Norfolk,” while innocuous at first blush, mean to me that shock and awe may not be in the lexicon of city officials.

But perspective is everything. And standards are to be challenged, broken and re-arranged.

Art can be ugly to someone, yet it can also be thought provoking. It can push the “standards of d decency,” yet it can be powerful in its imagery.

So we shall see what the local mavens of the art world decide what is appropriate for Wards Corner.

Forgive me for saying this, but Norfolk isn't ready for Richard Serra or Maurizio Cattelan.