Citizen complaint of the day: Time to wave good-bye to Peters Park sculpture

By adamg on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 4:22pm

Wave sculpture at Peters Park in Boston's South End

A concerned citizen gets cranky on seeing the current state of the Land Wave statue-ish thing in Peters Park in the South End:

It's a nightmare. Tiles are chipped off, water pipes are exposed, the grass is overgrown. Let's be real. It should be taken down. The strip lighting on top worked for like a day and it has been a blight ever since it was installed. Who designs a perfectly climbable installation next to a little league field and then expects no one to climb it. Ridiculous waste of money. Let's cut our losses and dispose of this dumb thing. It makes the park look sad and uncared for.

Neighborhoods:

South End

Free tagging:

Peters Park

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Comments

Disaster from planning to completion to destruction

By JohnAKeith on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 4:40pm.

What a waste of effort and good intentions.

"The installation commemorates the historical location of the Neck to the Shawmut Peninsula, the narrow isthmus that once connected the Shawmut Peninsula (now downtown Boston) to the mainland."

I don't even understand.

The original idea for this was thought up in 1999 - sixteen years ago, and a decade later construction finally began, completed in 2010 and almost immediately started to fall apart, on its own and from human abuse.

Mayor Menino, 2010: “It’s a beautiful site,” he said. “I just wonder how many foul balls are going to hit it.”

Can you imagine having made a donation to this project and seeing it as it looks above?

It's crap-tastic.

http://landwave.org/LandWave/Home.html

http://www.mysouthend.com/news////96656/new-age_design_to_represent_the_...

http://patch.com/massachusetts/southend/after-decade-of-work-landwave-sc...

$500k?

By anon on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 6:38pm.

I don't think I've ever seen this in person, but how could it have cost $500k?

I'm a graphic designer with a

By Josev on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 9:24pm.

I'm a graphic designer with a background in environmental design, when I first saw this I questioned how long it would last (also the concept is weak as implemented). I had no idea it cost 500k, what a waste of money.

A NIGHTMARE!!

By Crankycoffey on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 4:41pm.

but good point: "Who designs a perfectly climbable installation next to a little league field and then expects no one to climb it"

I remember having this thought

By Sally on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 5:04pm.

the first time I saw it, like "great--how long is this going to last?" I don't understand how something like this could get through the most basic review process.

As with most conceptual art,

By anon on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 5:31pm.

As with most conceptual art, it would work better if they just put up a sign with the concept printed out in text.

I attended my South End neighborhood association meeting

By MC Slim JB on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 8:24pm.

when this was pitched and fund-raised ten or so years ago, and thought at the time that it was a cool idea, a nifty historical tribute, and an attractive design. Having lived with it for a few years, I don't love it in execution (especially the color) as much as the concept, and it has to be utterly baffling to the casual observer. Any way you slice it, if you don't fund maintenance of a piece of public art, it inevitably becomes a shabby eyesore like this.

One of the reasons I ran for Mayor.....

By kevin.mccrea on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 8:58pm.

Seeing this complete waste of money. This would have been a great location for batting cages next to the park where so many residents of the South End and other residents come together. I've coached here for over a decade and it is a running joke to those of us who have put in uncounted volunteer hours here.

Let us have some batting cages! Useful, interactive, and much less than $500,000!

Think how many college scholarships that could have paid for....

Public art always struggles for justification vs. more practical

By MC Slim JB on Tue, 08/25/2015 - 10:45pm.

alternatives. It's not hard to find examples of public art works that met with initial controversy and are now recognized as significant contributions to public life. The work of great artists going unappreciated in their lifetimes is a truism.

It's entirely possible that Land Wave won't be one of those, but I still think that it's too easy, often lazy, to say "I don't appreciate it, and therefore I don't think public funds should support it." A lot of this was privately funded. I'd be curious to know what percentage of its funding came from public sources. Only three of the 12 major donors (at least a $10K contribution) obviously draw from public funds, and the recognized smaller, private donors are much more numerous.

In the meantime, it's one thing to carp about how public funds are spent, another to spearhead the funding of an alternative. Two individuals spent more than ten years trying to get this thing realized: if they were motivated by profit or fame, I doubt it paid off for them. How many more-practical public projects have you brought to fruition?