What’s behind the fascination with Burning Man art
The two newest pieces of art on loan to San Jose from Burning Man have already been big hits with visitors to downtown. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson’s “Ursa Mater” family of bears and “Tara Mechani” by Dana Albany will get their official welcome party Friday night.
But their popularity highlights something about San Jose and its public art: Why doesn’t the city’s own public art collection get this kind of love? Where are the crowds
eagerly changing the patterns on the colorful and interactive “Show Your Stripes” installation on South Second Street or the stream of Instagram posts of people posing in front of Queztalcoatl?
Well, that question may have just answered itself. While San Jose has a vast array of public art — most but not all of it scattered around downtown — we lack a large- scale, signature piece like the Bay Lights in San Francisco or Cloud Gate, better known as “the Bean,” in Chicago. There’s a reason the city’s lingering symbol is a light tower that collapsed a century ago: nothing else has been captivating enough to eclipse it.
The explosion of murals over the past few years has been a welcome addition to the city’s visual landscape, but other pieces tend to fade into the background. When was the last time you actually looked at Italo Scanga’s “Figure Holding the Sun” in front of the San Jose Museum of Art? And while the city has a directory on its website, it’s difficult to navigate and doesn’t invite exploration.
That may explain why the Playa to the Paseo partnership pieces — and others before them, like the Musical Swings in 2016 and Akira Hasegawa’s illumination of the City Hall rotunda in 2006 — resonate with the public so much. They’re big and bold and almost de- mand to be looked at (which you can do at Friday’s 6 p.m. reception, which spans Plaza de Cesar Chavez and Paseo de San Antonio).
Michael Ogilvie arrived from Las Vegas last year to take over as San Jose’s director of public art, making him still new enough to have an outsider’s perspective. And he’s a fan of what the city has to offer. “The city of San Jose has an amazing public art collection tailored to fit this city, and much of it created by local or Bay Area artists,” Ogilvie said.
Ursa, Tara and Burning Man’s other big hit, Sonic Runway, all were created by artists living and working in the Bay Area. He knows some would say that’s stretching the definition of “local,” but he doesn’t buy it.
“That gets into a border discussion, and when we discuss art — art that is not propaganda has no borders,” Ogilvie said. “With this said, nurturing local talent is important, and more can always be done to ensure this continues and expands.”
That includes making sure public art is considered from the start as the city plans its future. Citing a Gehl Institute study on public life, Ogilvie said cities that are considered vibrant and compelling places to live and work are those where people who are walking, biking or scooting are presented with visual stimuli every four seconds.
“How is this done? Urban design and planning must make sure public art is integrated into it, that’s how,” he said. “Artists know this, and having them at the planning table is a key to creating a dynamic habitat.”
Forunately, City Hall may be opening itself up to a more artistic future. The Playa to Paseo project has shown that bold art can enhance the civic experience, maybe enough to get the city to shake off its lingering timidity about going allin on an art project again after the debacle around Robert Graham’s “Plumed Serpent” in the 1980s.
This week, the city council embraced plans by the San Jose Light Tower Corporation to create a reimagined version of the iconic structure. There are plenty of questions still to be answered about the project, including its location, design and whether enough pri- vate and corporate funds can be raised to support it. But the city’s endorsement alone is a step in the right direction, and it certainly elevates the project team’s hopes to have the tower — which will be a gift to the city — completed by 2022.
Now, that would be a signature piece of public art — and maybe we can send a version of it to Burning Man one day.