March 25th, 2006
Public Art Abuse?
By Dylan Reid // 15 Comments
I was walking past the parkette at the S-E corner of Bloor and Spadina on Thursday night about 7:00 when I saw three guys on bikes riding on, leaning on and doing tricks on the popular domino sculpture on this corner. They weren't even kids -- they were university-aged at least.
We at Spacing are generally supportive of BMX and skateboarding -- we've published articles arguing for improving facilities for these sports in Toronto. But the activity I saw on Thursday just seems thuggishly abusive. This isn't simply street infrastructure they were biking on -- it's public art. A lot of money and effort was put into this sculpture in order to make this intersection more attractive for everyone in the city. It is a wonderfully interactive sculpture, designed to be sat and leaned upon, but riding a bike on it is a whole different story, creating vastly more pressure and erosion and thus threatening to shorten the life of the sculpture. Plus, of course, it prevents anyone else from using the sculpure to sit on, as was originally intended. To me, this kind of behaviour is selfish and gives the sport a bad name. Am I being old-fogey-ish? I'm curious what others think.
photo by Bouke Salverda
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When I recorded the artists who did the work for [murmur] a couple years ago they said they didn't mind the skateboarders and stuff using the dominoes. They seemed to be of the mind that they're there, people can use them.
Not all skateboarders and bmx's are nice and polite though -- maybe there is a way to do it with manners, then everybody can get along. I often wonder though about those guys who look well into their 30s riding around on the little bikes. Maybe they're on their way to Circ du Soliel.
that's funny, i saw that exact behavior going on and i said, "wow, what a great use of the sculpture!"
but i was kind of entranced, too, because i think those are actually mountain bikes they are using, which is the kind of biking i like to do.
if they were bmx, they might be grinding the sculpture with their pegs, but with the seatless mountain bikes it is just the rubber tires that are touching the art.
i approve, i think.
What bothers me about that park is the massive Astral Media add pillar that not only dominates the parkscape but is visible from inside the nearby school.
City engineers spend so much time making sure that public space fixtures can't be used to skateboard upon... bolts installed on concrete ledges, for example, that make it impossible to "grind" a skateboard on the ledge. I wish that there was a bit of a detente between the opposing forces: cities would set up a few places that were skateboard and bike stunt friendly, and on the other hand, skateboarders and bikers would refrain from doing stunts elsewhere.
Yeah, I think the artists must have known it would occasionally be used in these types of situations simply because of it's design. How could a skateboarder resist such a thing? And as someone else has already pointed out, riding on it with a mountain bike isn't going to do a whole lot other than provide some exercise/entertainment. 
To me, it's only one small step between complaining about this and complaining about bikers/boarders riding on anything else in the city, which I thoroughly disagree with. Especially since the city refuses to provide an alternative. It's the NIMBY example that strikes closest to home for me as someone who used to skateboard a lot as a kid (albeit not in Toronto, but somewhere else that went through the exact same troubles establishing a public skate park).
Old-fogey-ish? Nah. I'm only 22 and I feel the same way. Coincidentally I’ll be working right by the sculpture starting in September (in the Sociology Department). I’ll make sure I shake my fist at any undergrads who mess the dominos.
An interesting comparison point might be the notoriously/gloriously sk8rplagued T-D Centre, where the granite benches may be argued as "abstract sculpture" in their own right--and then Cadillac Fairview disfigured them through anti-sk8 metal "warts" last year (many of which have already broken off). Give me the sk8er-scuff-mark patina over metal warts (or the gouges where said warts once stood) anyday...
If they were doing the things you describe on bicycles, they were trials riders or trialsinists, not BMXers. I’ve spent many hours with them and only ever seen them take a nick out of something once or twice.
Bikes & Dominos? Both sound like fun to me. But as an artist I can
understand why you may be concerned. Very thoughtful of you.
I used to go to school there almost a decade ago (oh man, has it been that long?) and occasionally I'd see bikers doing tricks (and they were indeed on mountain bikes of some sort, not BMXers). Whenever this happened, there'd be a small crowd of people watching them do their thing, and the parkette would actually feel a bit like the public square it's supposed to be.
I don't know about the damage they might be causing, of course; someone with more experience concerning the materials and construction of the dominoes would have to step in. But to my untrained eye, it looked like the dominoes were doing just fine. And considering how often they seemed to "perform," they weren't much of an impedence to other people using the art as a bench—though, to be honest, I never saw people use the dominoes for sitting much; the stone footwall and hill in the photo always felt like a more natural lunch spot.
This discussion is not about whether skaters are "good" or "bad", or whether complaining about them ultimately leads to fascism.
Neither is this about whether cycling or skating on the domino sculpture can damage them. Wesley's well-worn "slippery slope" and "thin edge of the wedge" arguments are also completely irrelevant (that complaining about kids who use the sculptures is just one small step away from complaining about all skaters). The issue is very simply about respect for public space and other people in general. I know that's a huge generalization to make, but ultimately, that's what the problem is here.
We live in a society that values individualism and self-interest above everything else. Ultimately, it's the same self-interest based value-system that motivates both the skaters and the old curmudgeons that opposed the dedicated right of way for St. Clair street car. For these people, public space is a variation of "my space", and they will do whatever they can to get more of it and keep more of it.
The same thing goes for people who abuse the privelege of postering in public space - the morons who put up more than their fair share of posters, and those who fasten commercial ads to lamp posts with wire and a pair of pliers. Not to mention the squeegee kids who think that a vehicle owner stopped at a red light is "fair game" for excercizing their hobby, cum income earning activity.
These people have no respect for the shared value of public space. This general lack of respect is endemic in our society.
Thanks to Spacing we have a forum to develop and articulate these values, which will ultimately lead to their propagation throughout the culture, along with other simultaneous initiatives everywhere.
I should probably clarify that I am not the same guy as Wes, further up in the thread. I only say this because I was genuinely confused as to whether I'd inadvertently made any slippery slope arguments!
But to address Periquito's point, biking, skating and other "bad" uses of public space are often deemed so because they are occasionally invasive and occasionally damaging. Fair enough; I'm not going to protect anyone's alleged right to damage public property so they can have a little fun. But in this particular case, there's little evidence that the bikers cause any damage or encroach on anyone else's use of the space. I think it's a bit harsh to lump these guys in with aggressive squeegee kids.
The bike riders 'got it' in terms of interacting with public art. I'd probably stay and watch, and wish I had brought my bike. I wonder if there would be complaints if a bunch of kids were using this installation to play hopscotch? Public art isn't meant to be roped off so people can respectfully admire it from a distance, and part of what makes it worthwhile is that people find ways to interract with it that may not be entirely what is expected. Kind of reminds me about hearing complaints about people touching, leaning on or climbing the Henry Moore sculptures outside of the AGO.
This MSNBC news clip shows a skateboarder trying to jump a car to get this stunt on TV. But he crashes badly: http://www.monkeybriefs.com/view.video.php?id=268&no=10743
I tend to be a supporter of any form of (sanitary) public interaction with any form of public space, so while I'd support the political right of anyone to use this art for pretty much anything, I think that we all have a responsibility to look after the art and ask the guys to choose something a little less fragile to play on. They wouldn't have to listen, but it's always possible that they haven't really considered the full result of their actions either.
Comment by Daniel
March 25, 2006 | 7:36 pm