Sculptures in Pack Square

[hauntedheadnc]

So, who's been downtown lately? Have you seen the sculptures on display in what used to be City-County Plaza?

Most of them are bland background pieces too dull to be made into conversation pieces. They're meant to send a message, and that message is, "Look! Here's some art!" They're pretty much like any other abstract and pointless piece of garbage you'd find in any suburban office park.

A couple are creepy, such as the one piece that looks like a heavily decayed ballet dancer, and also one set up in front of City Hall that looks to be a glass-topped coffin made of cement blocks, with cement block chairs set up around as though inviting one to dine on the deceased. Looking through the plexiglass top, the interior is lined with mirrors and satin, including a little pillow. It's not been sealed against the elements well because when I saw it, moisture was seeping in. When the satin starts to mildew it will be a true thing of beauty, I imagine.

A couple of the artworks are outright ugly -- the kind of ugly done on purpose, as opposed to the boring pieces, which seem to have come out ugly by accident. One, on your right as you're facing City Hall, honest to God, appears to be a piece of abandoned construction debris. A wrecking ball on a tripod.

I am deeply, deeply disappointed, and I sincerely hope these pieces aren't meant to be permanent. A temporary display of bad art is acceptable, but if this is the kind of garbage the Pack Square Conservancy has been spending its money on, I can see some heavy vandalism in downtown's future -- especially on the concrete block coffin. That plexiglass top will just be too irresistable for those looking to express themselves with a sharp piece of rock or a sledgehammer.

Does anyone know the story behind all this new junk cluttering up the square?

[zen]

These are some of these supposedly horrible sculptures as they appeared the month before at the Amboy Road dog park

Flickr shots