Beachfront Sculpture Is Caught in a Web of Anger

A sculpture best described as an astronomical jungle gym appears destined to become the newest attraction on Santa Monica’s beach--despite protests from oceanfront homeowners who complain the artwork will ruin their scenic views.

The piece by artist Nancy Holt received a final go-ahead from the Santa Monica City Council last week, culminating a five-year plan to place “interactive” artworks on that community’s southern beaches. Construction is expected to begin within 90 days.

Holt’s sculpture is a web-like network of black steel pipes pointed toward the ocean. It is designed to align with the sun and the planets in such a way that it will mark the summer and winter solstices.

Eclipse Simulated

For example, at noon on the summer solstice, the light cast by the sun will exactly cover a concrete circle at the center of the sculpture, simulating an eclipse. (The summer solstice, which usually falls on June 21 or 22, is the day the sun is at the northern limit of its annual path, directly over the Tropic of Cancer.)

“The interplay with astronomical phenomena was key to recommending this project,” said Henry Korn, cultural arts administrator for the city.

Called “Solar Web,” the $72,000 work will stand up to 16 feet tall and is 72 feet long. Visitors will also be able to climb on it, Korn said.

Although the sculpture drew enthusiastic support from the city’s art mavens, several owners of the expensive Sea Colony condominiums, which face the ocean, cried out against the project.

They complained that the structure would block their until-now uncluttered views of the shore. And they worried that unwanted homeless people would drape their clothes on top of it or camp under it.

Conflicting Visions

In many ways, the argument boiled down to conflicting visions over what the beach should be used for and who should have access to it.

Sea Colony resident Edgar Hirst, reducing the artwork to a “bureaucratic creation,” said he specifically moved to his townhouse for its “beautiful open vista” of sand and ocean.

“I’m not against art,” he told the City Council at a public hearing. “I’m against placement of art on nature’s masterpiece: a beautiful, unspoiled beach.”

Elaine Hoffman, a member of the Arts Commission, countered that, although it may not have been “in God’s plans” to place artworks on the beach, neither was it part of God’s plans to build million-dollar condos there. Several other people accused the Sea Colony residents of holding the beach as their private domain.

Sharon Jaquith, another Sea Colony resident, vowed to take the fight against the sculpture to the California Coastal Commission.

The dispute left artist Holt somewhat bewildered.

“It’s a very open work,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in New York City. “I purposely made it that way so that it wouldn’t obscure views. I don’t see how it could. It’s very open and airy; it gently frames the view of land and ocean.”

Holt is considered by many in the art world to be a leader in the field of public art. One of her other projects involves building a sculpture park on a garbage dump in New Jersey.

“Solar Web” was one of three projects chosen by the Arts Commission after receiving proposals from 29 artists in 1984. The works were to form the new Natural Elements Sculpture Park scattered along the southern half of Santa Monica’s beach.

The other two projects--”Art Tool” and “Singing Beach Chairs”--were erected in the last two years. “Art Tool” by Carl Cheng represents a giant roller that “prints” miniature houses, streets and gardens on the sand, and “Singing Beach Chairs” by Douglas Hollis are wind harps in the shape of beach chairs that make sounds when the breeze blows.

“Art Tool” is located near the Santa Monica Pier and Singing Beach Chairs near where Pico Boulevard meets the beach. “Solar Web” is to be erected on the southernmost beach near the city’s border with Venice.