Selling Circles: How an Artist Ripped off Charlotte
The vaunted art critics with Charlotte Area Transit System's art-in-transit program call Thomas Sayre an artist. Rip-off artist is more like it. As I've written in the past, for years, Sayre has been selling similar looking circles, squares and cucumberesque art pieces to public art commissions around the country. (See http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A5586)
Sayre's modus operandi is the same in every city. He meets with people from the area to find out about the history of the place, then builds them circular or square "castings" that look remarkably like the ones he has done in other cities. He then invents some localized back story for the piece and claims it represents some unique aspect of local history.
(read more below ...)
Look familiar? Sayre is doing this project, which he calls "Harrow," for the Indianapolis Airport.
Here's the Charlotte version, along South Boulevard, which Sayre calls "Furrow."
Sayre is doing this unnamed piece for the University of Oregon's Living-Learning Center.
As you can see from looking at the pictures above, the "sculptures" he has done in three cities look remarkably similar. Sayre claims the disks he is doing for the University of Oregon's Living-Learning Center are "reminiscent of the organic shapes of leaves" and will link the outdoor spaces at the center through "visual echoes." They're supposed to "link the organic/industrial chasm," whatever that means, and act as "reminders of the earth's essential elements."
In Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer reports, Sayre met with Scaleybark area residents who said they wanted artwork that recalled a past when farms covered ground now dotted with subdivisions and strip development. So Sayre built us big red disks whose color he claims represents the "classic North Carolina red clay color." One problem. The similar looking disks he's doing in Oregon and for the Indianapolis Airport are the same color and texture.
Sayre calls the disks along the light rail line on South Boulevard "Furrow" and says they recall the harrowing disks farmers around here used to use for planting. In Indianapolis, Sayre's art disks are called "Harrow" rather than "Furrow" and represent -- you guessed it -- Indianapolis' "unique" farming heritage.
For mass producing these disks and claiming they represent some abstract aspect of local history, Sayre has been paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
I was stunned by today's article about the transit "art". I've seen the discs. I guessed that they were some sort of noise reduction structure. I think that they look like rusted satellite dishes. That artist saw the government suckers coming from a mile away. Ain't the public teat wonderful?
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Yes I also thoght they were " noise reduction" structures, but alas no it's art. One man's art is another man's..... you fill in the blank. However, this is what classifies as investigative journalism?
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I agree totally! It is an absolute rip-off, and we taxpayers are the ones getting stuck.
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I know this is not funny, but I just can't stop laughing!
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Tara - Looks like the uptowners have taken the taxpayers again. Maybe we could call them "T-Tookies", tea cookies for taken taxpayers. The color is right for the ingredient that makes up our representative's gift to us, or is that maybe ginger?
Last laugh for later. If you look at the "establishments" near the cookies wait until a 4AM departure from drinking places and a pickup meets the cookies. "TRUCK FLATENED BY COOKIE in CHARLOTTE".
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Oh My! I was listening to your show about a hour ago while leaving NO DA heading south on 77 to Fort Mill. I was tempted to divert and go down South Blvd but I was tired and wanted to get home. To my good fortune there was road work being done and a sign flashed "Left two lanes closed ahead." So I quickly exited on Clanton and had the thrill to see the "Disks" up close and in person. WOW!
I am new to the area and when I saw the sculpture on Randolph I thought to myself, "Are these things supposed to be ham bones or what?" When you said the same artist did both... I think I would have eventually figured that out on my own.
I have seen some very good and interesting sculptures through out the city. But, the "Ham Bones" were never one of my favorites. Maybe a little Kudsu (sp?) would help. Hey... that is what we can do. Plant a bit of the mother nature's answer to bad art at the base of the disks and at least we can have some "Green Space!" Even if it is vertical on a big oatmeal cookie up and down South Blvd!
I have to agree.... Charlotte has been duped.
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They look like cow chips to me. This is an outrage. With an "oh-so-broke" attitude rampant in CharMeck government how does anyone justify this supposed eye-candy? Head should roll. The severed heads should replace the artwork at the Scalybark Station.
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The problem is that well-meaning doopes using taxpayer money are buying this crap. It would be different if, say, private industry/individuals paid for ad hoc pieces. For example, WBT could design and pay for artwork honoring Molly grantham's enormous feet. Or Al Gardner's choppers.
Or just hire a real sculptor to do bronzes of famous Charlotteans, eg. Dorothy Counts, Betty Feezer or Fred Kirby.
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Those aren't hambones...those are popularly known as "the onion rings."
But seriously, one reason that we get publicly-funded abstract garbage like this is "diversity." It's nearly impossible to fund any kind of representational art without some group claiming that it's not represented, or it's portrayed badly, or those who are portrayed oppressed somebody in another group, or the artist doesn't belong to the "group" being portrayed.
With that, it's easier just to pay some hack like Sayre to crank out some nonsensical flipdoodles, craft some anodyne backstory for them, and congratulate yourself on your cosmopolitanism.
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Well, the "diversity" comment is way off the mark -- Sayre is just another old establishment white guy from a privileged, well-connected DC family, so this had nothing to do with diversity. Quite the opposite, really.
As for life-like bronzes, we see thousands of those dead statues in our lives, and we see real, live people with much more character around us each day (if we just open our eyes)... so no thanks on the celebrity bronzes idea...
Big abstract public art can be mysterious and engaging and strike up entertaining conversation and be a real draw to a city -- look to Anish Kapoor's "bean" in Chicago (Cloud Gate) for an excellent example of how powerful a totally non-representation work can be.
But cities are definitely getting ripped off when a con artist is selling the same design with different stories to different cities.
The LEAST an artist can do is give the city something unique. Sayre seems to be bankrupt of new ideas or morals with these examples of rehashed designs.
Heck, just look at what Sayre's company, Clearscapes, "created" for their latest work in Raleigh for the Civic Center, the giant "Shimmer Wall" -- a clear rip-off of Ned Kahn's glittering work on Bank of America's parking garage in Charlotte. They had to pay Kahn off by taking him on as a "consultant" once he saw that they had ripped off his signature style.
Sayre seems to be intent on ripping off Charlotte in one way or another, be it copying his own work, or other's.
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My comment about diversity didn't imply that the work was bad because the artist comes from an historically marginalized group. It was that art that actually has people in it or commemorates an historical event inevitably draws p.c.-based criticism.
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Good for Sayre! This is capitalism at it's most honed. If he keeps finding people stupid enough to buy his crappy sculptures, then more power to him. The real problem here is We the People of Char-Meck - we know these politicians are fiscally-retarded morons, yet we keep voting them into office year after year. Sure, those of us paying attention may not do that, but we're in a vast, right-wing minority around here. The majority of people in this area are no different than the majority of people in the country - either apathetically non-voting, or addictively dependent on whichever pol promises them the most from the public coffers. But who cares, right? At least we'll have a sophisticated, post-modern, world-class light rail line!
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Tsk, Tsk, Tsk Tera, It sounds like you have adhered to radio's 'no dead air' rule by beating that old public art debate horse again making Charlotte look like Mayberry to others. The disks are similar, but indeed different, perchance a variation on a theme. Perhaps you would prefer the paintings of children with those big eyes at Walmart or maybe some of those furniture store paintings that are sold at those 'staving artists' sales? Please, don't you have more important muck to rake?
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The old public art debate is a horse that keeps getting up, despite the smell. If the 'city leaders' would kindly stop dipping into our pockets for such strange aesthetic sensibilities (as yours apparently), then we won't have to blog about gumbies or cowpatties. Thus, Dave, it's quite rakable muck.
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I think we could probably build something better for South Blvd.
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Tonight as I was giggling over the 'overgrown nilla wafers' on steroids I couldn't help but think of Monroe, Ohio's BIG BUTTER JESUS.
If you don't believe me, just 'youtube" "Big Butter Jesus" After you see you this you will want to grab a glass of milk, to go with you buttered cookies! LOL
I"m still cracking up!
Mary Beth W.
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Charlotte: More muck to rake than rakes can chuck.
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Honestly, the first time I saw those, I thought the construction crews had hacked the bottom off of something, and the remains just ended up teetering on the edge. a few seconds later, I realized it was supposed to be art. If the city is so desperate to spend money, why don't they give the teachers, or the Paramedics a raise? What a sad, sad waste.
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The art should have been funded with private money not taxpayers who have no say. Then we could see what really would have happened with the final object(s) and the cost. It is out of hand again. And I wonder why I hate to pay government for anything.
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It's hardly a stale debate Dave Long. As long as public money is being spent on something -anything at all- you should expect that the public at large will comment and criticize, that commentators will comment, and that the public will expect their elected representatives to hold accountable to the public will the vendor of whatever it is on which money is spent. I realize that "artists" and the self-appointed arts afficianados make the argument that only they are qualified to comment on art and everyone else should simply be stil and accept the pronouncements of the arts elite, but it doesn't work that way. By virtue of the fact that it is our money we are fully qualified to render judgment on that upon which it is spent. Even when that is "art". Indeed no one -neither the self appointed arts elites nor the artists themselves is more qualified than the lowliest taxpayer to comment on public art.
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Well, Tara, this one strikes a nerve. I'm all for injecting a little culture into the local scene, especially if it involves music, art, or dramatic performances. But please don't spend my tax dollars to do it! I'll gladly drop a contribution in the hat for privately funded arts ventures, and I believe all good citizens, corporate and private, should do a little of that. But when peoples' hard-earned tax dollars go to pay for crap like this, something is wrong. Keep pounding on the crap artists AND the crappy politicians who rip us off.
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It kinda makes me hungry.
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Reminds me of the money well-spent on the "art" in the courthouse.
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I have always subscribed to the Thomas Hoving notion that "Art happens when anyone in the world takes any kind of material and fashions it into a deliberate statement". I have a very difficult time however applying that definition to the works of Mr. Sayre. It seems that his deliberate statement would more appropriately be called a repetitive statement that lacks originality, purpose, appeal and usefulness. As an art critic, I attend hundreds of art shows, exhibitions and events. I have an incredibly difficult time with taxpayer money, such large amounts of taxpayer money being spent on things that get painted as being "public art". I get incredibly annoyed with the constant mantra that "we need more money for art". In Mechlenburg/Union county area alone there are more art museums and art galleries than I can quickly name. Capitalism works. Galleries sell paintings, galleries need patrons...so galleries sponsor openings, viewings and other events free to the public to expose a broad clientele to the wares of the artists. This is done without a penny of taxpayer money. How can this be? Simple stupid...capitalism works. So why do we need to use taxpayer money to buy art to enrich the culturally defunct lives of the poor masses? Simple....stupid...we don't. This Sayre art purchase is just one more example of how the powers that be in local government have misused our money to get themselves to the next level of Sim City. It is a disgrace and I am very happy that you have called this to the attention of your viewers. Thank you Tara, for all you do. Rant off...
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