Ensuring Millennium Park Fountains Only Look Creepy

By Olivia Leigh on Dec 20, 2006 8:30PM

While we are huge supporters of art, we have to admit: the giant faces on the art installations in Millennium Park freak us out a bit. While the idea behind them is excellent — a work of art that reflects the city and its people, and provides fun entertainment for kids in the hot summer months — we don’t particularly like to be stared down by 50-foot-tall faces. However, the giantific portraits became even creepier when we discovered yesterday that the faces didn’t only look like they were watching us, but in fact, they were.

Painfully obtrusive security cameras from the good folks at the Department of Homeland Security were mounted atop artist Jaume Plensa's glass fountain towers in November, in such an unattractive way that it appeared a large plant was sprouting out of the top.

An article in the Tribune yesterday featured somewhat scathing opinions from local architecture fans and prominent art experts. Chicagoan Mike Doyle said the camera “looks like a Martian sitting there with a little antenna on his head.” James Yood, professor of art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said, “This changes the whole idea of the sculpture, which is that these are our brethren. Now instead of looking at us, they're surveilling us, which I think is not exactly the artist's intention."

Ed Uhlir, Millennium Park executive director, said that the cameras were placed on Crown Fountain temporarily, until they could be moved to a permanent location on a pole west of the fountains, at Monroe and Michigan.

However, after the complaints began surfacing on blogs over the weekend, any safety concerns were pushed aside for art’s sake, when the Park decided to remove the cameras just hours after the Tribune article ran.

Park spokeswoman Karen Ryan said, "When we found out there were so many people who found it more obtrusive than we expected, we took them down.”

While we think the cameras were, indeed, an ill-advised installation that failed to take into account the artist’s work, the speed with which Park officials removed the cameras is somewhat laughable, given the country’s preoccupation with the almighty Homeland Security in recent years.

So, Millennium Park, while we will give you a pat on the back for responding to feedback and respecting the integrity of art, it would be nice to know that safety in the space isn't so easily tossed out the window. How about finding a way to subtly watch out for trouble in an unobtrusive, respectful way?

Photo from wallyg.