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Greater Greater Washington has been following the selection process for a planned public art installation that's going in at the northeast corner of 18th and Columbia Road for at least a few months now, so we tip our hats to them for first drawing our attention to it. Despite the call for artists having been initiated over a year ago, a list of semi-finalists having been selected back in March, a community survey posted online at the end of April, and a decision on the artist made in June, the thing simply managed to go largely under our radar until Friday, when GGW posted an announcement that the selection had been finalized. The chosen artist, James Simon, is planning a large set piece of statues called "The Bicycle Musician," depicting a musician playing a guitar while perched on a bicycle, with a little dog looking up at him. It hasn't been a popular choice with everyone. Writes David Alpert:
Many residents dislike the piece, and KCA President Denis James editorialized against it. It was my least favorite of the three, as well, and doesn't provide seating while the other two do. In our poll, it came in last.
Selecting public art has got to be one of the most frustrating jobs in government. There's no way everyone is going to be happy, and you're also stuck with choosing from among whatever proposals you get. Still, we understand why people might be put off by the rendering originally passed around and posted by GGW. It looks a bit silly, not to mention it's clearly not to scale.
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities sent over some updated renderings and scaled plans for the installation, which we've posted above, alongside the original image. At a minimum, the new renderings and plans make the whole thing look much less cartoonish. Also note that a couple of benches are indeed included in the plans, which has been one of the biggest complaints about the design.
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This is an absolute travesty.
Hey, anyone remember Tilted Arc? This kinda reminds me of that, except, y'know, without the pee.
Yet.
The chosen artist, James Simon, is planning a large set piece of statues called "The Bicycle Musician," depicting a musician playing a guitar while perched on a bicycle, with a little dog looking up at him.
Any chance he can put the musician on a ghost bike with Molly staring up at him? Molly should have enormous eyes. Also, replace the musician with a sad clown, also with enormous eyes.
The chosen artist media-whore, James Simon Legba Carrefour , is planning a large set piece of statues called "The Bicycle Musician Junkpunch," depicting a musician playing a guitar junkpunching himself while perched on a bicycle, with a little dog Molly looking up at him.
Whew, did I miss anything?
Gah, strikethrough fail.
You left out retarded monkeys and whale cake.
You left out CHUDs, gun control, voting rights, hipsters, baby-eating cannibal necrophiles, mumbo sauce, hobos (both singing and stabbing varieties), references to Swampoodle and BloMi, telling Liz to get back on the editorial board of Artforum magazine, and Jim Graham threatening to shut down the entire project for violations of its liquor license.
I now want to create a DCist comment thread bingo game. ISAGN.
Imagine the sculpture Dcist could make if we all worked together. Come on kids, let's put on a show!
comment o' the day right there!
Shouldn't Nick Cho be delivering the junkpunch?
You forgot to include the WMATA bus that's about to run him over while he's wearing headphones...
23 year olds from Bethesda are going to love barfing on that statue in the wee hours of a Saturday night.
um, more like 19 year olds from virginia, but same diff.
Pure Kitsch.
I'm really embarrassed that this hideous thing is going to be installed in my neighborhood.
Ironically, you won't be able to chain your bike to it, I'm sure.
Eesh, that's really ugly and cartoonish. Why can we as a society no longer creat, commission, or select good public art? The high point of civic sculpture was clearly 1865-1939. Just think of all the great art across DC from that era: the Dupont Circle fountain, the Buffalo on Dumbarton Bridge, the lions on the Taft Bridge, about a zillion dead white guys on horseback, ornate fountains, and the artwork in Meridian Hill Park. the most mediocre bronze statue from that period would be far better than the silly bike portrayed. Even a nice bronze cyclist standing dismounted next to his/her bike.
Maybe people will stick so many jumbo slices to the statue it will become like the Ford Theater Gum Tree.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2326
Maybe it'll be blanketed with post-its detailing people's distaste for it. And once a year it will be renamed "Festivus".
WTF? If they can't put something aesthetically pleasing here, couldn't it at least be useful. I sent a message to the Smart Bike program asking if they had any plans to install a bike rack on this new, wide plaza. Apparently the city decided installing some awful art (if you can call it that) would be better use. FAIL!
A rotation of temporary art displays would be better. people could compete, and every several months a new work could be chosen.
Ironically, you won't be able to chain your bike to it, I'm sure.
Who was on the selection committee for that monstrosity? I like public art, but that thing makes baby Jesus cry.
Love the architecture firm trick of designing a huge, useless, barren, pedestrian plaza and then using an extremely cleaned-up artistic presentation to make it look like a pleasant place to be.
Has anyone else checked out his other, um ,art? He's got it all-monkeys, cocks, mutilated rats-even Marion Barry!
This figure isn't historic, isn't futuristic, isn't contemporary. It's the closest thing to alien as some crap public art statue could be without being from another planet.
Go liberate The Awakening from National Harbor.
i'm all for that just out of principle
this argument over this appalling piece of "art" has been going on forever on the adams morgan listserv (my favorite gang of internet loonies). the major problem is that no one in the community was really aware of the voting process, and ultimately the artist isn't from DC. we have plenty of our own starving artists here, we don't need to pay some fancy pants from pittsburgh to decorate our streets. oh, and the part about the bronze bench with a cute little rat underneath it hits a little too close to home.
That explains it.. there were only 3 submissions. Well, except for that 20 ft Jumbo slice the board turn their noses up at.
actually, i stand corrected. there was no formal vote for electing this hideous travesty.
At least this statue doesn't have 8 arms
A statue of Ganesh would be cool.
Colorful, playful and slightly bohemian, just like our neighborhood. A big welcome to the Big Biker!
Colorful? Playful? What are you three years old? There are less appalling pieces that can add some color and sense of play. Bohemian? WTF? If your idea of bohemian means crap that looks like a burned out tweaker sculpted it out of clay in rehab, and your concept of "bohemian" stopped in 1970-- then maybe. That thing looks like someone vomited on a piece of shit.
Get over yourself! Your comments are just a stream of hatred and invective. I can't believe you accuse me of being 3 years old and then compare the Bicycle Musician to 'vomit on a piece of shit'. When this art is installed, I reckon people are going to come to like it, or at least find it interesting.
I hope, for the sake of the sculpture and the neighborhood, that you're correct. Otherwise, given the current hostility towards it, I can easily see people making their opinions about the sculpture not only heard but smelled as well.
Ok, sorry, perhaps I went a little far.
But I hope you realize I am well over myself, I was over myself like last year. I think maybe you need to get over yourself a little (it feels good trust me) if you actually think this is a place to avoid being insulted, and having things compared to vomit and shit. This is a comment thread, not an Artforum symposium on civic art.
Sorry about the baby comment, "colorful and playful" are just gag triggers for me when it appears those are the most redeeming things about a sculpture, especially when it is not actually colorful (it is sort of shit colored, I mean look closely), uh oh, I am about to throw up on my screen again.
This sculpture is stupid and looks amateur at best. Why not have someone from DC design it, why not have trees, why not leave it as it is? Anything is better than this. Also the lack of a selection process was shameful at best.
TRASH. Epic fail for Adams Morgan.
Ever since they fixed up that sidewalk I've wished that they would get rid of that BB&T Bank that NOBODY EVER GOES TO and put in a brewhouse with tons of outdoor seating. Trash the "public art" as well. I think people would be a lot happier with something like that.
I can answer the question about "why not an artist from DC" -- most public art rfps are open to artists outside of the jurisdiction so that other cities reciprocate and allow artists from DC to propose work. I have no problem with that; in theory, you end up with a broader pool of interesting work to consider. Every once in a while, however, you end up with a big batch of fail like this, and it makes you question the "cast a wide net" approach.
Has the Fine Arts Commission approved this thing?
And what of Mr. Simon's repetitive use of that same old dog?
It's called "being lazy." Like a certain commenter's perpetual re-use of juvenile fart/pee humor.
wow, everyone's a critic—seriously.
Yeah, some of the comments here are over the top. Typical anti-anything-different-DC. That said, I am not a fan of this.
yeah, if you don't like it, say you don't like it. it's art, people, no two people will have the same opinion.
the people who are making this out to be "worse than hitler™" need to get a grip, or at least take some prozac.
I know of another failed art critic who decreed that "mentally ill" people who disagreed with him had to take mind-numbing medication that sapped their free will or had to get lobotomies. And that man's name was....hmmm...hold on. Help me out here. What was the name of that guy? He used to live in that party house on Swann Street? Always wore the same plaid shirt and listened to Neubauten cranked up really loud? Oh, yeah. ADOLF HITLER.
Two questions:
1. Who on the "board" is this guys relative? Personal friend? I guess I should ask, how did this thing make it to the top of the list if everyone can't stand this piece? Is he giving it away?
2. How can anyone justify not selecting a DC artist when there are plenty to choose from, and could use the commission?
This will be an embarrassment for DC for many reasons, and many years to come...
Until people forget and become blind to it, as they do to all office park schlock, and can again just walk by without cringing- only then will there be peace.
WOOF!
City Paper has an update that the project has been tabled. So much for Mr. Playing a guitar while on a bike man.