The Wall/Therapy Project

“The mural is lewd. It depicts two…creatures …(in) a sexual position that is lurid.  We will see it at breakfast, lunch and dinner and so will any guests we have in our apartment.”

These words come from a letter to City Newspaper written by Paul Goldberg referring to one of the 10 wall murals installed in our city recently, this one outside his loft window.

In response, Dr. Ian Wilson, a radiologist at the Univ. of Rochester Medical Center and founder of Wall/Therapy, defended the drawing by international mural star ROA. He used many of the arguments that I and many “art people” have used over the years: interpretations are personal, these are meant to stimulate conversation and view surroundings in a new way and (the ultimate of course), we in Rochester are lucky to have ROA work here.

(Please go to The Wall/Therapy Project to see all murals and read the gist of this event. I, frankly, am a little befuddled.  In my experience, such public installations needed to go through a review and approval process by SOMEBODY.  As near as I can tell, Dr. Wilson is not only the founder of this project who invited the artists and got building owners to agree to use their exterior walls as art billboards, he also is chief financial underwriter.)

I despise painted horses, cows, dogs, cats, deer, giraffes, elephants, tigers, benches and Peanuts characters that have blanketed ours and other city sidewalks during the past few years in the name of “public art projects.”  They are fun for about 3 weeks before revealing what they truly are: urban clutter. If they all mysteriously disappeared as quickly as they sprouted up, that would be one thing. But they don’t.  They hang around  because somebody actually invested real $$$ in these things and were misled to believe they were doing all of us a cultural favor.

As for wall murals, I place them right after painted frogs. They hold public attention (for better or worse) just about as long. Some are cute, clever, and well-executed. So what? Like the example: one pink flamingo on the lawn is tacky - 10,000 is an art statement. Rarely, do murals extend beyond one pink flamingo.

Public art is always a tricky subject (we’ve already gone through the Otterness trauma.)  W.  Gary Smith in his book “From Art to Landscape” says “I think the basic difference between art and design is that design solves problems while art raises questions.”

City streets and urban neighborhoods need creative design solutions and artists are uniquely equipped to interpret the dis-connects and find good fixes.  So are some architects…and landscape designers…and space planners... dancers…musicians. We, the public, need to insist on good design in the first place! Not every solution needs to be wrought metal or carved in stone.  Witness the Jazz Festival that has given Rochester a whole leap of Pride of Place. But please put wall murals and painted horses in their place: view them as temporary, talk about them if you want, but come Fall, let them all disappear.