Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
Cubs Combat Casino
PHOTOS: Peaches And Amanda Blank At Metro
The Return of The Chicagoist Reader Meet-Up
County Sales Tax Rollback Vetoed - Here We Go Again
We're all down with sculpture gardens. But are garden-gardens art?
That’s the question artist Chapman Kelley (warning: pdf) is putting to the Chicago Park District — via a federal suit. Kelley alleges that the garden he designed and planted in Daley Bicentennial Plaza is art protected under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act. Not everyone agrees, saying that the flowers have run wild and that the garden occupied too much space. The park district reduced the garden by 50 to 60 percent with the blessing of the Grant Park Advisory Board.
The suit, which goes to trial today, alleges that the garden is art made of “nontraditional materials.” Harold Washington called it “magnificent,” and Kelley says it’s his Mona Lisa. On the other hand, park district officials have on one occasion referred to it as a “visual disaster.” Whether or not it is protected art, though, remains to be seen.
Image via aviewoncities.com.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
you couldn't come up with a less valid or important lawsuit. it'll be tossed immediately
At the same time, y'know, creating a space IS an art. I don't think it should be allowed to become overgrown, but I'm not sure i like the idea of messing with the original vision.
I dunno, some consider the landscaping of olmstead an art. if they trashed his work we wouldn't have jackson park in chicago, central park in manhattan, or prospect park in brooklyn.
its debateable, but i would tend to side that it is art. its no different than any other type of creative endeavor, just a different medium.
and i dont understand the people who say anytime something is naturally landscaped its ugly or looks overgrown. as great as it is having grant park, its way too rigidly formal for its own good. Jackson Park is much more beautiful IMO, and thats because it allows nature to just BE, rather than trying to contain it in a bunch of planter boxes.