August 2016

UPDATE: Did the city corrode their own piece of art?

l3wis August 20, 2016 4Comments

UPDATE: After a little research of my own, it seems just regular South Dakota weather could have easily corroded this piece and the welds, if it is made from a mild steel. It seems not much research was done on the piece (materials) before it was installed, which is unfortunate. But I do agree that it could possibly be reinforced at the foundry, but it won’t be cheap.

I found this story about removing public art from Lyon park a bit disheartening;

A steel sculpture of a woman is gone from Lyon Park.

Her hopeful silhouette – leaning forward, one arm raised to the sky – was removed in favor of government prudence.

City officials hired a company to examine the piece and determine upkeep expenses. It’s a practice City Hall plans to move forward with each time it adds to its portfolio, Planning Director Mike Cooper said.

“Now that our inventory of public art has expanded significantly over the years, the investment is pretty substantial,” Cooper said.

The sculpture at Lyon Park, “Effortlessly Buoyant” by Indiana-based artist Gregory Mendez, was removed this week after it spent more than year looking out over the intersection of 14th Street and Phillips Avenue.

While I am all for the city investing in public art, I wondered when the ‘maintenance and cleaning’ budget started how long they would be willing to fund it. Could our city be so broke that now they can’t even come up with the money? Funny how we have the money to build a pool that will have a $1.5 million dollar operating budget each year (and we still have to pay a fee to use it) and $500K for a private tennis club with the mayor’s name plastered on it, but somehow we are coming short on the public art budget.

But there is probably a bigger issue here not mentioned in the story;

Steel in the sculpture suffered “extensive corrosion,” according to findings from the Los Angeles-based company hired to analyze the piece. The group, RLA Conservation of Art and Architecture, recommended against accepting the artwork.

City officials first hired RLA in 2013 to help maintain its existing pieces of art, including the deteriorating youth mosaic wall along the river downtown. City leaders have since committed thousands of dollars to fix the wall, a collaborative effort from hundreds of Sioux Falls children.

Ironically the damage to the wall and the sculpture might have been caused by the city and not natural things like rain, snow and ice. People working on the mosaic have told me that most of the damage caused to the wall is the result of the chemicals the city uses on the streets during the winter. I can’t image how much has been sprayed on that sculpture over the past winter from 14th street. The chemicals are highly corrosive. Residents complain yearly about what it does to the city’s boulevards. These chemicals eat away at things like steel and ceramics. So did the city actually damage it’s own piece of art? Would be interesting to see the piece up close.

There is a solution, let’s hope the city has a change of heart;

But when it comes to “Effortlessly Buoyant,” Clark was disappointed. The sculpture was a good fit for the park, and cleaning up is as simple as bringing it to a foundry, he said.

It seems a protective coating could be an easy fix.