On the Hunt for Public Art

 With "Nobody's Listening" by Jack Cartlidge

Sarasota is chock full of public art. It's one of the many things I love about the city. And yet I rarely take the time to study a sculpture that I pass in my travels. That changed last Saturday when Emilie and I set out on the Sarasota Public Art Scavenger Hunt. It was great fun. 

The hunt required us to answer nine questions based on sculptures found within a one-mile radius downtown.  Sometimes the clues led us to sculptures we'd passed many times without really noticing. But other times we found sculptures hidden in plain view that were just outside the scope of our usual paths. 

Detail from "Pioneer Family
Hears a Sound..."

Take, for instance, "Nobody's Listening" and the other sculptures by Jack Cartlidge found on the grounds of City Hall. (Not surprisingly, wearing a skirt didn't dissuade me from scrambling up onto the platform to stand amidst these giants.) While the title of the work resonates today, Cartlidge created it in response to the Viet Nam War protests and the Civil Rights movement. It was intended as a reminder to public officials to listen to all the citizenry. 

"Nobody's Listening" was created using a technique called "repoussoir" in which the artist beats copper from the interior to sculpt the work.  The result is a work that looks like bronze at a fraction of the cost. And here's a tidbit for you: The same technique was used to create the Statue of Liberty. 

To read a great article about Cartlidge and his work as an Art Professor at New College, click here. 

Em takes an appreciative
look at "Bharata" 

Five Points Park is the home to multiple sculptures in different styles, including "Bharata" by Claudia Jane Klein.  We obviously weren't the first people to give the statue some attention. A previous visitor -- perhaps another scavenger hunter? -- had written her impression of Sarasota in chalk beneath the sculpture. "Art town, not fart town," the writing declared.  Okay, then. 

Klein is an artist who has worked in a variety of different mediums. Before she turned to metal fabrication in the 1990s, she was a ceramicist and a fashion designer. 

Klein explains the intention behind her work on her website. "All my sculpture is a manifestation of my entire existence. The focus of much of my work is spiritual, mental and physical evolution.... Bharata [is] a part of a group of sculptures emulating human striving for a different plane of existence as achieved through the disciplines of yoga, dance, meditation and sports." Hmmm.  

As to the name of the sculpture, "Bharata" means "being maintained" in Sanskrit. It is also the name of Agni, the Hindu God of Fire. That seems appropriate for a metal sculpture welded together by its creator. 

"The Opera Imp" 
by Ethelia M. Patmagrian

The Sarasota Opera House is a focal point of downtown.  But I had never looked up and taken a real look at the sculpture on the corner of the building. Perched there is "The Opera Imp," created and presented to the Sarasota Opera by Ethelia M. Patmagrian in 1991. Patmagrian was a teacher at the Ringling School of Art. And in case you're wondering about her somewhat creepy choice of subjects, there's a story behind her selection.  

An imp, as you probably know, is a small, mischievous devil or sprite. I have no idea what imps have to do with opera, and it's possible that Patmagrian didn't either. Decades earlier, a sculpture of an imp had been placed in this alcove. Some people believed it was an inappropriate decoration for the Opera House, calling it "satanic and vulgar." At some point, opponents of the sculpture got so riled up that they destroyed it. When Patmagrian heard this story, she was inspired to recreate "The Opera Imp" based on old photographs of the original sculpture. 

The Sarasota Opera House is worth some background as well. The historic building -- originally used as a more general theater -- was built in 1926 due to the efforts of A.B. Edwards, a businessman and early mayor of Sarasota. Edwards was committed to the concept of a modern city built on Sarasota Bay and the promotion of winter tourism. (Big check marks on both of those goals having been achieved!) Never having read the plaque on the building before, I was interested to learn the theater hosted the Ziegfeld Follies, Will Rogers, Elvis Presley and, of course, the world premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's movie "The Greatest Show on Earth." But I digress. 

I'll end with the sculpture "Personaje" by the Venezuelan artist Ivan Rojas. This treasure was particularly difficult to find as the "clue" merely directed us to stroll east on Main Street and look for the smiling face waving at us. How far on Main Street? Which side of the street?  Thinking we were looking for a shop, some guys asked if they could help us. When we told them what we were doing, they had no idea where the sculpture was located but agreed the scavenger hunt was a cool idea. 

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any information about Mr. Rojas. I can, however, tell you that "Personaje" means "character" in Spanish. I can also tell you that the sculpture -- like the entire outing -- made me smile. 

If you're in the Sarasota area and want to go on the scavenger hunt yourself, click here. Or better yet, make up your own and send your friends on a fun exploration of our city.