Mar 27, 2008
ALDRICH ART:
Sign creates debate among viewers
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Art, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder and if the eyes of many Ridgefield residents are correct, the latest outdoor exhibit at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum isn’t quite art.
“I don’t recognize that as being art,” said Barbara Bradbury. “I certainly noticed it, but I had no idea it was art. It’s just not my taste. I prefer the Keeler Tavern.”
The 18th Century Keeler Tavern is a stark contrast to the outdoor “sculpture” artist Ester Pardegas erected on the front of the “Old Hundred” building at the Aldrich. The sculpture looks like a typical New York bodega sign, but instead of a store name, it proclaims “The Invisible.”
The sign is part of the Aldrich’s “Main Street Sculpture Series” and will adorn the building until Aug. 10.
“It’s created quite a hullabaloo,” said Anita Lindsey, who strolled past the Aldrich with her husband on a chilly spring afternoon this week. “I think it does what art is supposed to do. It provokes thought. It is so out of keeping with the rest of Main Street that you can’t help but notice it.”
For the artist, according to the Aldrich Web site, the sign “explores the social, emotional, and physical relationship of the spectator to those objects that have become part of the urban landscape.” Other words on the sign, such as “simultaneity,” “nuance” and “co-existence” describe the process of creating art, a release on the Web site said.
“I think it’s fascinating,” said Penny Frost as she walked past the sign. “It’s one of the more interesting pieces I’ve seen at the building.”
Ms. Frost, however, was in something of a minority.
“It sucks,” said Rudy Melk as he walked by. “This is art? They gotta do better than this. Putting something like this out on a historic building is sacrilege. I went all the way to Florence to see Michelangelo. Now that’s art.”
He wasn’t alone in that sentiment.
“I guess I just lack the understanding of art, if that’s what it is,” said one woman who declined to give her name.
Her male companion simply sneered as he said, “No comment” when asked for his thoughts.
“It doesn’t fit on Main Street,” said another passerby who requested anonymity. “Why don’t they put it on the new buildings. It doesn’t belong on this one.”
Another resident who declined to give her name was a bit more forgiving, even though she didn’t like the sign.
“I think it’s a bit of an eyesore,” she said. “I walk by here everyday and I look at it and I wonder why anybody would do something like that, but then, I guess that’s the whole point: to get people talking.”
Over the past few weeks, a half dozen letters to The Press have addressed the sign. Only one writer liked it.
Aldrich director Richard Klein, in an op-ed piece in today’s The Press, said “When we decide to work with an artist on a new piece for the Main Street location, we want them to make something that is publicly engaging and notable. We have failed if, six months or a year later, people have completely forgotten about something we presented.”
For Mr. Melk, the bodega-like sculpture would be best forgotten.
“I’d tear it down. It just doesn’t belong on Main Street,” he said.
Still, Ms. Lindsey’s male companion, who declined to give his name, said he thought whether people like the sculpture was almost beside the point.
“It’s effective in getting attention,” he said. “It’s a good marketing tool to get people to want to see whatever exhibition goes with it.
“I don’t think it’s art,” he said, “but it’s certainly effective.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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