Dear Editor:
It would be a disservice to our city if nobody criticized the new “public art” that was erected on our behalf by the developers of the Modello tower, by Willingdon and Beresford. If that is art, then we could most definitely call anyone an artist. It is nothing more than metal mesh in the shape of a tree trunk, with a single branch. The construction of it took hardly any artistic inspiration, and the profound environmental statement which the artists nobly and honourably took as their inspiration can not possibly redeem it.
Michelangelo’s masterpiece “David” is public art. Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” is public art. The laughing statues at English Bay are public art. This, on the other hand, is a mistake. The trunk is constructed with strands of smooth metal, which shows no trace whatsoever of artistic expression besides slight bends, and there are shorter pieces connecting these longer ones, which are numerously slanted. And then you have the leaves, which happen to be a different, solid colour. Wow. Impressive.
I consider myself to be a progressive in nearly all matters, moral and practical, even social, but this is simply not art, let alone “public art.” We can call it post-modernism, but it is truly and simply a mistake.
Elias Ishak, Burnaby
