by Bailey White
Staff Writer
As some of the largest projects of the Better Jacksonville Plan gradually emerge and change Jacksonville’s landscape, so will the work commissioned by the City’s Public Art Commission.
The group has chosen five artists to produce work for four of the Better Jacksonville Plan’s major projects and is still in the selection process for others.
Here’s a look at some of them:
Main Library
Two artists were chosen to produce work for Jacksonville’s new Main Library, designed by architect Robert A. M. Stern.
For outside the library, on a corner platform 20 feet above the ground, a large sculpture has been designed by Washington, D.C. artist Larry Kirkland.
Kirkland is creating a 15-foot-tall bronze owl, which will rest atop a pile of books and beside a gilded book with a keyhole in the middle.
Above him will hang a nine-foot-tall gilded key that will contain an alpha and an omega, the symbols of beginnings and ends.
In his artist statement, Kirkland said that the owl was an especially appropriate image for the library because of its connection to the Greek goddess Athena.
“She represented wisdom, reason and strength,” he said. “In Greek myth, Athena often transforms into an owl. The owl has been a symbol of wisdom because it can see in the darkness. For centuries the owl has been used as a symbol of intellectual pursuit because of its relationship to Athena.”
“In terms of accessibility, the owl creates a message that is not hard to interpret,” said Jeff Dunn, the chairman for the Public Arts Commission. “It’s a highly recognizable symbol that denotes a place of learning and knowledge and that will make people feel welcome.”
Inside the library, two large- scale paintings have been commissioned for the grand staircase by artist Kathryn Freeman.
Freeman was intent on incorporating scenes and people from Jacksonville into her works and spent time interviewing local historians and studying the city’s architecture.
In one painting, a group of people fish from a balustrade taken from Riverside Memorial Park. The Crosby and Greenleaf clock is depicted, as is a bench from the Cummer Gardens.
The faces of Henry John Klutho, who designed Jacksonville’s first public library and Taylor Hardwick, who designed the Hayden Burns Library, are both represented in the facade of the architecture Freeman incorporates into her painting. Other Jacksonville figures, including author E.L. Konigsburg and civil rights activist Stetson Kennedy are visible in the paintings.
For her work, Freeman corresponded with local school children, asking them to tell her their favorite literary character. She received thousands of letters and learned that Curious George, Winnie the Pooh and the beagle Shiloh, who was an often requested character of Duval County children.
San Marco Branch Library
The recently renovated San Marco library on Hendricks Avenue will be the first project to have a piece of public art installed.
Jacksonville-based artist Jerry Smith was commissioned to produce a painting for the lobby of the building, an area that will connect the library with the adjacent Balis Community Center.
The eight-by-nine foot painting is called “A Gust of Wind” and depicts a girl – Smith’s wife – at a riverfront San Marco park.
Smith recently had a show at the spiller vincenty gallery entitled Paintings of ‘S’, but this piece was created specifically for the site.
“I live in the neighborhood and I’ve been making pictures about the area around my studio and home since I’ve been here,” said Smith. “I knew the San Marco Library and knew the work I was doing fit into what the Commission was looking for for that location.”
The work will be installed Oct. 1.
Sports and Entertainment Complex
Barcelona-based artist Jaume Plensa was chosen for a large scale project,
Talking Continents, a work consisting of six kneeling figures that will be placed on poles 30 feet high.
The figures — each will stand six feet high — will be constructed of fiberglass and will be lit from the inside by a kinetic LED light. They’ll be controlled by a central device to regularly change color, but slowly so that a viewer doesn’t necessarily notice the change.
At the base of each pole, a round wooden bench will provide seating.
The poles will be situated around the complex.
“Talking Continents is based on a desire to unite and complement the complex group of elements that make up the area,” Plensa wrote about his project. “Each body is a continent, a geography, a place of life that from on high celebrates the Arena’s function as a meeting place for people.”
“This is the most dramatic, the biggest and most expensive of the works,” said Jacque Holmes, the art consultant for the Public Art Commission.
“If any of the projects will get Jacksonville national and international recognition, this will be it.”
Plensa is an internationally known artist. He is currently working on another large scale project for the Millennium Park in Chicago.
The arena is scheduled for completion by Nov. 17 and the art work will likely be done by early December.
Equestrian Center
For the entrance circle of the new Equestrian Center, California-based Michael Stutz is creating a bronze horse that will stand nine feet high and will be more than 11 feet long.
Stutz’s technique utilizes woven latticed bronze strips welded together and supported by a steel armature.
“Like cast bronze, it will endure,” said Holmes, “but it will have a completely different character. You’ll be able to see through it, and it will create interesting shadows
The horse will stand atop a three foot tall grassy mound, giving it extra height.
“At its highest point, the building will be 65 feet tall,” said Amy Crane, the Cultural Council’s marketing director. “The horse will have the significant magnitude and height to stand up to that.”