With the election behind us it is time to turn our community attention to more pleasant pursuits – ones that involve neither negative mailers nor robo-calls. Take, for example, what could be called participatory public art.
The city of Durango’s statue at the newly revised intersection of Camino del Rio and Highway 160 West has been controversial from the start. Called the Arc of History, critics have likened it to everything from a pile of rocks to flying feces.
Adding a sculpted dinosaur head to it, however, was almost uniformly enjoyed. And with good reason, it was brilliant.
As the Herald reported Tuesday, putting up the dino head on Halloween and its subsequent removal on Monday may both have been technically illegal. According to the Durango Police Department, adding the head could be seen as the desecration of public property. And in that those who took it down were not the folks who owned it, its removal could be counted as vandalism. Had it been the same bunch, taking it down would have “nullified” putting it up, and the whole business would have been a wash.
The city has recovered the dino head and is seeking its owner. Based on the time-honored principle of no harm, no foul, no charges should be filed and no effort should be made to find anyone else involved.
First of all, the city has more important things to do. Beyond that, though, while this may have been illegal, it was evidently done without malice. And the fact is it displayed considerable imagination and talent. It was clever and well-executed.
Then again, a local artist brought up another aspect. As he told the Herald, “I wouldn’t be surprised if this set a precedent for other artists.”
Would that be a bad thing?
Non-destructive acts involving imaginative uses of public art could be seen as an art form in themselves. And, as befits Durango, by their nature they would include a degree of athleticism, or at lest agility, combined with a certain amount of playful disregard for authority. Think Zombie March meets Christo.
Art, after all, does not need to be somber and should not take itself too seriously. Nor should the authorities make too much of what was clearly a harmless and humorous gesture. It also warmed the hearts of those who hate The Arc of History.
There is nothing wrong with mixing art and fun. The key, of course, is to follow the dino-head model and be witty, even edgy, without being vulgar, destructive or hurtful. Whomever is responsible for the dinosaur head livened up a weekend.
