In the past couple of months we’ve been talking a lot about art in the streets of Salt Lake City. This is in conjunction with the phone app we are currently developing to highlight the artistic side of Salt Lake City.
Of course, Salt Lake isn’t the only place in Utah that likes to dress up its streets with creative eye-catchers.
This month Park City’s Public Art Advisory Board installed a new public art piece. “Sheltering Aspens,” by Koryn Rolstad, consists of approximately 75 fabricated “trees” and over 1000 “leaves.” Koryn is a Seattle based artist who was chosen by an RFQ to create a piece in the entry of the newly renovated Marsac Building (the town’s City Hall, two blocks east of Main Street – 445 Marsac Ave.). Melissa Soltesz, of Soltesz Fine Art Consulting and a member of the Art Advisory Board, sent us some images of the piece.
Park City has also announced the new plans for the Kimball Art Center. More on that tomorrow.
Obviously Art Lake City will have to be a prototype for statewide tours of Utah’s artistic side.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Architecture & Design | Daily Bytes
I’m getting to be an old man. It must have been twenty years ago that some of the nation’s best-known glass artists were commissioned to put pieces of dichroic glass on the facade of an important New York building, in the dome of the Portland, Oregon, performing art center, and in countless other places. You know dichroic glass, whether you realize it or not. Also known as ‘Color Xerox glass,’ it’s the stuff that is so effective in jewelry, turning from yellow to purple when tilted and offering an equally complex, complementary rainbow of colors by reflection as opposed to transmission. The problem, which took the non-specialist audience a while to tumble to, is that sculpture isn’t jewelry. It doesn’t move. The viewer has to search for a point of view where something happens. The photos above were carefully made to show the ‘leaves’ in the sunlight, where they make a great photo. In an honest photo, they would look like what they are: a mediocre craft project. As a fan of public art, who would like to see funding continue for worthwhile projects, I am disappointed to think that those whose tax dollars may have paid for such works, or who can assume that they will be nicked for such ornaments in the future, will be disappointed to find little or nothing to reward a visit to this site.
Koryn Rolstad’s piece “Sheltering Aspens” in front of the newly renovated Marsac Building in Park City is a remarkable piece. I’ve seen it in various light from early morning to twilight and even snow-covered at night. The stylized grove of aspens has a presence of an almost spiritual place similar to standing in a “community” of aspens in the mountains surrounding the city. That is what I find so intriguing about the work. It connects the aspect of primal nature, that which was here first before humans arrived, with this present day community existing due to the resources of the natural world and looking to preserve that for the future. The community of Park City exists because of that connection to the natural world. Native people found the wetlands and mountains teaming with wild life, treasure was discovered under these same mountains transforming the canyon into a community. When the silver was depleated it was still nature that provided a source of revenue bringing people from all over to enjoy it’s power and beauty. If you remember how aspens grow with a “mother” tree sending out feeders from which other trees grow eventually forming a community; you will see the symbolism of Ms. Rolstad’s work. When I look at the various elements of the piece, with large and small members inclined toward one another in smaller groups that make up the larger gathering, I see the depiction of this community of Park City looking both back to its conception and forward to its future. Quality art should create an intellectual discourse not be just a regurgitation of nature.