There’s been a really interesting/divisive debate raging in Olneyville and online over the last several weeks, regarding, well, garbage cans.
Matt covers it here. A local artist fabricated 4 garbage cans, as part of a broader order from the nonprofit Olneyville Housing Corporation. The cans were text-heavy, respectively describing the artist’s conceptions of “Colonization,” “Exploitation,” “Disintegration,” and “Gentrification” — touchy but crucial subjects in Olneyville these days. OHC rejected the work upon its completion, saying that it was not in line with the conceptual designs they’d seen. They’ve remained at the Steelyard, while other cans that were ordered with them have been installed.
I’m not knowledgeable enough about the inter-organizational dynamics to weigh in in a meaningful way, except to say that it appears that the cans will end up getting placed somewhere in Olneyville, which is undoubtedly a good thing.
The Olneyville Neighborhood Association released a letter that included this text:
According to the artist, Lu Heintz, “I was asked to create public works for Olneyville centering on its Industrial Heritage… To provide a pretty history would limit our potential as a community to use public art as a tool to confront our past, undo current systems of oppression, and ultimately learn to love each other… My work was completed—designed, forged, laser-cut, fabricated, sand-blasted, and powder-coated—when a few individuals protested the installation because of the nature of the text laser-cut into the steel.”
Staff from the OHC and The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council rejected the work after its completion despite the fact that the artist had gone through the necessary design process with The Steel Yard. The City, involved organizations, neighborhood representatives, and the artist could not find a common solution. A letter from the American Civil Liberties Union to the city on the artist’s behalf unfortunately exacerbated pressure on the organizations to find closure.
There was a lively forum about the issue tonight at the Steelyard, which I wish I’d remembered to post about before the fact. I attended about 45 minutes of it:
a public forum at the Steel Yard to discuss various ways that artists build relationships with the cities and their citizens through public works of art whether bought by patrons, commissioned by organizations or installed by the artists themselves.
The Steelyard folks admitted that they had mismanaged some aspects of the process — overlooking the conceptual change without the client’s say-so — and pledged to get the cans, which the Steelyard now owns, placed somewhere where they’ll serve their intended purpose as public, functional, art.
Gentrification in Olneyville is a legitimate and very serious concern, and I think it’s imperative that the cans be placed somewhere, and am very happy that the Steelyard has made that commitment. I also think they’ve done a pretty decent job of handling a really sticky situation.