VISUAL ARTS : 2 Sculptures Complement Their Locations

In a commendable move that counters the odious habit of installing “plop art” in public places, two local arts institutions have commissioned works of site-specific sculpture. Whether temporary, like the work by Mario Lara for Escondido’s Mathes Cultural Center, or permanent, like the George Trakas installation at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, context plays a central role in both the call for these works and their realization.

Reesey Shaw, curator at the Mathes Cultural Center, initiated the Escondido project out of a need to keep art in the public eye during the months that the center is closed for renovation. Late last year she contacted Lara, a local artist trained in architecture, to conceive of a work that would attract attention to the site.

“The building itself is understated and tends to get lost,” Shaw said.

Despite the gallery’s proximity to a public library, many people don’t know it’s there, she said. By commissioning Lara to install a site-specific sculpture there while the gallery is closed, Shaw hopes to remind them--or inform them anew--that the building is a center for art. Lara’s work, “De-Terminis,” is a formal response to the temporary closing of the gallery.

“The creative energy of the (center) was going to be displaced, so I wanted to do a piece that showed energy in a state of flux,” Lara said.

“De-Terminis” will sit on the roof of the cultural center, the site that Lara and Shaw agreed would be the most visible from the large adjacent parking lot. A wooden cone, fence and wall, all painted red, will evoke a basic architectural skeleton, and will be pierced by segments of a pole, painted with yellow and black stripes. The pole will interrupt the architectural structure like a broken line, Lara said, symbolizing “a state of indeterminacy.”

Lara and two assistants will be erecting the work this weekend at the site, and the public is invited to observe the construction process. “De-Terminis” will be officially unveiled and illuminated Feb. 17, at 5:30 p.m., near the library entrance at 239 South Kalmia St.

The sculpture, co-sponsored by the Escondido Public Art Partnership Panel and the Felicita Foundation for the Arts, will remain at the site until the building renovation is complete, expected to be sometime in April or May. Its removal then will correspond with the meaning of the work itself, Lara said, for the displaced energy that “De-Terminis” represents will have been restored to the cultural center.

While Lara’s sculpture assesses its site in formal terms, Trakas’ “Pacific Union,” at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, deflects attention away from its own formal attributes to the surrounding landscape and view. Officially dedicated last month, “Pacific Union” transforms the narrow tip of the museum’s garden, wedged between a loading dock and the adjacent streets (Coast Boulevard and Cuvier Street), into an inviting area for exploration and meditation. The work was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support from the Arts Promotion Division of the Department of External Affairs, Government of Canada.

Trakas, an internationally-known artist from Quebec who now lives in New York, has been working in the arena of outdoor, site-specific sculpture since the 1970s, incorporating bridges, pathways and shelters into natural landscapes. In “Pacific Union,” these elements--made of wood, stone and steel--mediate between visitors to the site and the expansive coastline beyond.

In addition to several new, narrow ramps, two newly excavated stairways dating from the museum’s prior life as a private home lead from the adjacent sidewalks to the elevated site. Benches, platforms and a block of gray metal bleacher-like seating facing the sea invite visitors to remain once they have ascended to the grassy plateau.

Unlike traditional sculpture, which is self-contained and object-oriented, Trakas’ work is decentralized. It sprawls across the irregular site, presenting itself and the spectacular vista beyond as environments to be experienced gradually, from a variety of perspectives. From two of the platforms, for instance, one sees the ocean over the tops of large slabs of granite the shapes of which echo the waves’ fluid rhythms. Small concrete shelters beneath these stone slabs suggest hiding places for children or more intimate spaces for private meditation.

Unfortunately, access from inside the museum to “Pacific Union” and another garden artwork by Vito Acconci is awkward and not particularly encouraged. The museum’s pending expansion plans will remedy this problem, according to curator Lynda Forsha, and allow a freer flow of traffic between the indoor and outdoor art.