By
Maggie Burnett
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Public art display dismantled because of safety risk, students defend project
If the world gave a group of five UA art students lemons, typically they'd make lemonade.
However, the students got oranges, so they made art - or at least tried to.
As part of a project for Art 104, a beginning-level 3D design class, students arranged several dozen oranges yesterday in a pattern around a group of orange trees located between Maricopa and Gila Residence Halls.
Conflict surrounding the project arose, however, when UA Facilities Management employees discovered the students had also arranged oranges in a line on the sidewalk passing through the trees.
"If it is a path of travel for someone, it could be a hazard for someone," said Al Tarcola, Facilities Management director. "There's no good reason in my mind (to put oranges on the sidewalk). It doesn't sound artistic to me."
"I don't understand the harm," said Anna Brown, a photography senior and Art 104 student "We're participating in a class project - it was there to take an existing space and make it more beautiful, and that's what we did."
Class members said they did not understand why Facilities Management would make such a big deal of cleaning something they would have probably had to straighten up anyway.
"I felt the groundskeepers were upset because they were going to have to clean up our art project," Brown said. "But, if the oranges were on the ground, they would have had to pick up the oranges anyways."
"We were assigned a project to make a piece of public art using things like cigarette butts, things Facilities Management has to clean up anyways," added art senior Molly Sullivan. "We focused on how nice it made people feel."
The project was assigned by Art 104 teaching assistant Noel Speece, who said he was inspired to create the project last year when art department head Andrew Polk brought up the notion of public art as a significant form of art.
"We didn't feel we were an obstacle or impeding on anyone," Speece said. "This was the only negative feedback (we received). Otherwise, people said 'this is beautiful - you guys should do this all over campus.'"
Brown and Sullivan spent time at the site of their project both to make sure nothing happened to it, and to catch the reactions of those passing by.
Both students noted that even a student in a wheelchair did not find the oranges a threat to her safety nor a roadblock in her travel.
"She said (the project) was cool," Brown said
The class was split into five groups, each of which was required to pick a public space to revitalize. In addition to using oranges, other groups chose to use materials such as cigarette butts and fliers handed out on the Mall. Students were only allowed to use materials they found in the environment surrounding the area they intended to beautify.
"When I gave out the assignment, I told (the students) that they are in no way, shape or form to destroy or vandalize property," he said. "In my opinion, someone may not like (the art), but (my students) didn't damage anything."
Other groups created projects such as a giant cigarette fashioned from used cigarette butts, as well as a sizeable message hung on a campus directory across from Old Main.
"The students used fliers and cut out letters, like you'd see in a ransom note," Speece said.
He added that the group then hung the letters on the directory sign to spell, "We are not your target audience."
"I thought it was good - they made a political statement with the rearrangement of public space," he said.
Yesterday being the last day the class was to work on the artwork, students were asked to finish their projects so that the class could visit the site of each installation and critique each other's work. Speece asked at least one student from each group to remain at the site of his or her group's project so that a groundskeeper would not touch the art before the critique.
Speece said Facilities Management came across the orange installation around noon yesterday, while it was being guarded by Brown and other students in the group. At least two of the employees approached the group, asking if they had obtained permission to arrange the oranges on the sidewalk.
"I've never heard of anyone putting oranges on a sidewalk. That would be like me putting rocks on the sidewalk," Tarcola said. "We have to look out for the best interest of the university. We're responsible for the sidewalks - that they are clean and aesthetically pleasing."
The Facilities Management employees then asked the students to remove the oranges from the center of the sidewalk. Brown and Sullivan told the employees they had to go to class but would return around 4 p.m. to clean up the rest of the project.
However, when the two arrived at the orange trees around 3:45 p.m., the oranges had already been swept to the side, essentially dismantling the installation yet not completely getting rid of the oranges.
"I'm disheartened because it was gone," Sullivan said. "They didn't have to clean it up - we would have done it ourselves."
Despite the conflict, students in the class said they still hope those who saw the projects enjoyed the change of pace.
"I just hope whoever went out and got a chance to see it really appreciated it," Sullivan said. "We worked really hard."
