Publication Date: Wednesday Jun 21, 2000

ART: 'Love' sculpture finally sees the light of day

A new sculpture called "Love Spoken Here" should now be shining in the sun on California Avenue after being installed over the weekend. But its journey to the sidewalk in front of the Palo Alto Sol restaurant was a bit longer than it needed to be, most officials involved say.

The money for the steel piece, now sitting in front of the Palo Alto Sol restaurant, was donated early this year by Elizabeth Bishop, a member of one of the first California Avenue business families. Unfortunately, the installation process was bogged down and delayed by bureaucratic issues with the site.

The sculpture--a collection of chairs around a table with the words, "Love Spoken Here," carved into the circumference of the table--was created by metal sculptor William Wareham, who has a gallery in Berkeley and an exhibit in the financial district in San Francisco. He is a nationally-known metal sculptor with works showing around the United States.

The original announcement by the city of Palo Alto was that the work would be in place by the June 4. But the process of finding the "fit between the artist's concept and public safety issues," as City Councilwoman Sandy Eakins put it, ended up delaying the installation.

Gerald Brett, a member of the Public Art Commission who owns a business on California Avenue, went further. He said the delay felt like a "tag-team effort" among different departments of the city's government. He pointed to the statement of "ingratitude" that this delay made, since the money for the project was donated, and felt many of the holdups were unwarranted.

First the Public Works Department, which didn't find out about the new sculpture until late May, questioned who would take over the maintenance of the piece once it was installed. There may or may not have been some controversy over who would be responsible for the day-to-day cleaning and litter removal of the area around the work once it was in place.

Usually, once a work is donated to Palo Alto, the Division of Arts and Culture agrees to take responsibility for keeping the work clean. Just last Friday, another piece of art, "Go Mama," by Marta Thoma, was installed across the street from "Love Spoken Here" without a hitch. There was concern, however, that Wareham's piece, as a collection of steel furniture, might accrue more trash than the usual works of public art.

The Department of Public Works, which cleans California Avenue twice a month, was mostly concerned by the added trash factor, said Glenn Roberts, the department's director. He said he felt the solution was to make the piece's maintenance a "teamwork issue."

The result was an agreement between the restaurants surrounding Wareham's work, the artist, and the Division of Arts and Culture. The artist would take over the structural maintenance of "Love Spoken Here," while the restaurants and the city would handle the cleanliness of the site.

In the end, even this wasn't the most critical stumbling block, according to Leon Kaplan, the director of Arts and Culture. Site maintenance was a "nonsensical concern," he said, since his division was ultimately responsible for placing and cleaning donated works of art.

He said the delay was caused by a request to add a trellis to the work. Elizabeth Bishop, with the artist's backing, wanted to add a trellis to the brick wall surrounding the work, to render the viewing of Wareham's piece more pleasant.

But then, as Kaplan put it, there were "structural concerns" because the trellis couldn't be added without stressing the existing brick wall that used to be part of the landscaping. Therefore, the city's engineers were forced to go back to the drawing board. The solution was decidedly unbureaucratic: install the piece and worry about the trellis later.

The real issue, after all, officials say, may be one of communication among departments. Roberts said his department didn't even know about the new piece of art until late May.

Brett remains concerned that delays like this may hinder the process of donating gifts to the city of Palo Alto. Brett said the process that caught up the Wareham piece may make other donors--two of whom are watching this situation carefully--wary of giving their money for public art in the future without the "courtesy and cooperation" of the city.

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