Wales Locals Try to Sink Estuary Sculpture

CARDIGAN, Wales—Residents in Wales objected to a public sculpture by artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer that was to be part of a national project to install artwork in neglected public spaces, reports the Times (London). The Big Art Project, a £3 million collaboration between Arts Council England, The Art Fund and Channel 4, chose seven locations for artworks, including Cardigan, West Wales. At a public meeting there however, Lozano-Hemmer's work, featuring 127 flickering, computerized buoys on the Prince Charles Quay that would play back messages recorded by passers-by, was highly criticized. Residents spoke of concerns about the environment, vandalism, and people potentially recording obscene messages.

Lozano-Hemmer, a Mexican-born artist who works in Montreal, assured residents he was there to work with them to produce something they all could live with. He said, “I am not an elitist artist, here to impress his project on you, but rather as an accomplice to work with you.”