A million dollars’ worth of gaudy dog and cat statues won’t fix what ails Miami
God knows we need, more than ever, the grandeur of public art to lift our spirits.
But city of Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo as the arbiter of what’s a worthy artistic undertaking in a cosmopolitan city like ours is a thought not even apt for the dogs.
Or, the cats in the million-dollar parade of over-sized, gaudy pet sculptures Carollo wants to install — on the taxpayers’ dime — at the bayfront Maurice A. Ferré Park.
Because nothing says “tacky” better than a pack of three-, six- and 12-foot statues in prefabricated aluminum taking over all the green space next to the splendid architecture of the Perez Art Museum Miami and the Frost Museum of Science.
And no, the project doesn’t make any more sense when I’m told that the sculptures would be painted by local artists in his or her style. Think the roosters of Little Havana and the cows of Miami Lakes, quaint and folkloric, but not fine art.
‘ILL-CONCEIVED’
This boondoggle is another kooky Carollo idea, this one inspired, he says, by a park in Colombia with dog art that his wife likes. If it’s the two parks in Cali with a select number of dog and cat pieces on the internet, it’s a joke.
If Miami is going to emulate an artful city, try the stunning Barcelona with its enviable collection of modern public art works scattered throughout Old World streets and set in neighborhoods that respect historic architecture.
Yet, Carollo is peddling
“El Paseo de los Perros y Gatos” as a major tourist draw.
“Miami will be known for its ‘Walkway of Dogs and Cats,’ ” he predicts. Get real.
Who’s going to rush to book a plane ticket, clamoring: “I can’t wait to see all those metal dogs in Miami!”
Miami is already on the world’s art map — not for kitsch, but for the worldclass private art collections on public view, for the fanciful Wynwood Walls, for its stellar line-up of serious artists and art professionals. And for its consequential art museum.
If Carollo gets his wish, what the city is going to be known for, come the next Art Basel, is for how quickly and thoughtlessly Miami can descend into mediocrity.
“It’s a lazy, ill-conceived concept,” Cristina Palomo, the Bayfront Park Management Trust board member who resigned in protest over the project, tells me.
Business travel is going to come after leisure travel — right after. How do we know that? We’ve seen that in other markets, other countries. China is one example. China recovered leisure in a very short time frame after they stopped the spread. Right after, business was booming, along with
“The bigger problem to me,” she adds, “is that this is not the first time in the three years I’ve been on the board that I have been hit with a surprise topic with a cost of several millions of dollars that isn’t properly noticed in an agenda [until it’s a done deal].”
Carollo chairs the Trust, and the board approved the dog and cat project with little discussion and no competitive bidding, awarding the $896,000 contract to design, cast and install the statues to local foundry Art and Sculpture Unlimited, Inc.
INSULT TO ART COMMUNITY
The commissioner’s maneuvering to make this happen without consulting public art experts or even making a phone call to PAMM’s director is an insult to Miami’s art community.
He undermined the efforts of art professionals who in the past two decades have turned Miami into a serious destination for contemporary art.
Renderings of the project show lovely green space being overrun by giant silver statues of dogs and cats at play, alone and with each other.
To begin with, there’s too much clutter for the space.
It reminds me of the tacky front yards all over Miami-Dade filled with bad imitations of Italian sculpture, posed lions and maidens in loose clothing, as if the owners went to Italy and wanted to bring back the Renaissance to flamingo country.
Perhaps, I’m being too harsh, and a winding parade of frolicking dogs and cats who get along could be an appropriate metaphor for wishful thinking in tribal Miami.
But that’s giving Carollo too much credit for thinking — though, at the Trust’s meeting on Tuesday, he did pull the item from the agenda.
If the city has almost $1 million to blow on public art, it should invest it in the stylized Sculpture Garden that PAMM has been lacking for years now. Or, it should invest the money in sprucing up the shamefully derelict entrance to the two museums — and installing proper signage.
As for dog-enthusiast Carollo, perhaps he should turn his energies to leading a public-service campaign calling for Miamians to pick up their dog poop.
That would be so much more helpful.
In a city populated by people who seldom follow rules, few give a thought to the fact that the dog feces they leave behind on the ground becomes someone else’s foul problem.
Leave art acquisition and curation to the professionals, commissioner — and next time, Miami voters, please vote Carollo off the City Commission.
A million dollars’ worth of dog and cat statues won’t fix what really ails Miami: bad taste in politicians.
Fabiola Santiago: 305-376-3469, @fabiolasantiago