THIS IS JUST A RANT SO DONT CORRECT ME ON GRAMMAR MY LANGUAGE OR MY OPINION....
Essentially the project was a fence and gate that was built next to urban roots - an urban garden on the west side of the city. It is meant to bridge public and private space, connecting the growth of nature and the community, making the garden more accessible to the public etc...
What I saw though when I arrived was this oppressive and dark structure that resembled medieval torture devices. I half expected halloween dummies to be hanging off the top of the structures empaled. Its my opinion so i do expect some disagreements with my view but honestly if you look at it does it put your eyes at ease or does it seem a it odd , no fun, and threatening! I've seen public art projects that take less time and are much more visually stimulation than this project. I feel as if the pretentiousness of the privileged got it the way of their ability to look at the appeal of these cement structures. Have they ever seen the movie metropolis or brazil? i feel as though these TOTEM as they called them were set pieces from those films. The st pieces that indicated that something scary was about to come.
I do recognize that their intentions were great ones. But they needed to revise the scheme and rethink the materials and color palette. If you re looking for an urban revival would you used metal and cement to represent that? I would think to liven the energy of the place that you would do as bets you can to not use such heavy looking weighted materials.
This fence also reminds me of those slots in castles that knights or archrs used to fire their arrows out of. The spaces in between each totem is small enough only to allow a tiny baby if that to get through. The idea behind this was to open the garden to viewing through these slits between structures making way for a bridge of the two environments. Again honestly did they think? would you want to lean or strain to see between two skinny poles of metal and cement? that is the most uninviting idea i have ever heard of! also on the opening there was this ditch like a mote that surrounded these totems. Even more uninviting.
it just seems like an over the tp event to show that the big people are thinking about the little people but in actuality have gotten s caught up in the concept and the intellectualism of public service that they are blind to the isolating properties of public art and art structures. This is the best example of not understanding you environment not making a piece site specific and ignoring your audience!
Bu there's more! the park next to the fence that is meant to bridge the two sort of community spaces was completely torn up on the opening day. it would have been better to have a grand opening when that thing was finished maybe? people had to sit o the reject totems of the project in mud and dirt again unwelcoming to the community. why not beautify have music as local places to supply food and not trends local but local residents supplying the food?
my family would have shown for reggaeton and puerto rican rice!
two more things the fence/gate that was to bridge the two areas even more was this metal iron looking structure. Also not exactly the most pleasant of materials to view on such a massive scale. Also huge the gates rather weren't even raised at the opening! the idea behind these gates is to open them for local festivals so that people could enjoy the garden and the park, bridging the communities together. then also making resources and fun experiences available to the less fortunate people of the west side. ack im sorry i even know some of the people that participated and I'm embarrassed! they are intelligent and goood niiiice people but have absolutely no clue what they just did!
last thing each of the totems had tiles in them. they were varying amounts of colored tiles that were created three yeah before the totems were erected. it was part of a project that was done by a few tile and I'm assuming ceramic artists in the area. they i believe did an outreach arts program with local children where they made these tiles. thats another story in itself! the tiles were given back to the families? or shown otherwise? i didn't have this info but were the families of the children that made the tiles contacted to come to the even opening? all i saw were UB student and families of the UB students and a few more posh artsy people who thought it might have been important to make an appearance. ahhhhh make me maaad.
ok my rant is done here is a video below from the opening... and maybe i will add the buffalo news and Artvoice article for reference ! yaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
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