Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

New Mission Hills library gets adornment

Clocked-out artwork

Janet Zweig’s proposal sketch
Janet Zweig’s proposal sketch

Esoteric may not be the only word to describe the city’s latest tax-financed public arts project, but it could turn out to be the kindest. Numbers recently posted by San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer’s Open Data project reveals that artist Janet Zweig of Brooklyn, New York, has been awarded a $280,000 commission to install adornment on the long-awaited new Mission Hills library.

Sponsored
Sponsored

According to a description of the installation, the work consists of “three mechanical sculptures that will be visible when entering the library through the main entrance. Each sculpture is a large, approximately four-foot-diameter roll of paper strung from a primary hub to a secondary hub. The secondary hub will contain a motor that very slowly pulls the paper off of the primary hub and onto itself, like an audio tape.” The point? “Each of the three sculptures will function as an ecological ‘clock.’ The pace of the paper’s transfer from one hub to the other will vary for each of the sculptures. The artist will work with local scientists to determine rates of change to the ecologies depicted, such as changes to our aquifers, sea-level and rates of deforestation. Each sculpture’s motor will then be timed to correspond with this scientific data in real-time.”

Close-up of artist proposal

Zweig is noted on the national public art circuit for her eccentric installations. In Saint Louis, she employed lumber from demolished houses to create a backward sign on an overpass near that city’s Maplewood neighborhood, correctly viewable only in the rear-view mirrors of passing motorists. In her home town of Milwaukee, Zweig created Pedestrian Drama, featuring a series of high-tech viewing stations. “As pedestrians approach the kiosks, installed on electrical poles, the artworks will activate and begin flapping. Looking inside one of the windows, onlookers will see short scenes of pedestrian encounters,” reported the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in August 2011. “The project became briefly controversial in April of 2009 when some city aldermen were unimpressed by a presentation by members of the Department of Public Works staff who shared preliminary schematic designs.”

A forthcoming interactive piece by Zweig at a public library in Boise, Idaho, “will allow people to write poetry, flash fiction or other literary forms on a typewriter attached to a giant roll of sculpted paper,” the Idaho Statesman reported this month. “The writings will be on display and logged into an archive that the city will keep in perpetuity.”

In January of this year, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, required Zweig to modify a project after the Norfolk Southern Railway refused to cut down trees on its property that blocked the sight of the museum from nearby railroad overpasses. “She originally proposed two ‘anamorphic illusions,’ sculptures that appear random and haphazard when viewed from most angles,” said the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Now she must come up with a new concept that takes the low visibility from the bridges into account.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader 1st place writing contest winner gets kudos

2nd place winner not so much
Janet Zweig’s proposal sketch
Janet Zweig’s proposal sketch

Esoteric may not be the only word to describe the city’s latest tax-financed public arts project, but it could turn out to be the kindest. Numbers recently posted by San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer’s Open Data project reveals that artist Janet Zweig of Brooklyn, New York, has been awarded a $280,000 commission to install adornment on the long-awaited new Mission Hills library.

Sponsored
Sponsored

According to a description of the installation, the work consists of “three mechanical sculptures that will be visible when entering the library through the main entrance. Each sculpture is a large, approximately four-foot-diameter roll of paper strung from a primary hub to a secondary hub. The secondary hub will contain a motor that very slowly pulls the paper off of the primary hub and onto itself, like an audio tape.” The point? “Each of the three sculptures will function as an ecological ‘clock.’ The pace of the paper’s transfer from one hub to the other will vary for each of the sculptures. The artist will work with local scientists to determine rates of change to the ecologies depicted, such as changes to our aquifers, sea-level and rates of deforestation. Each sculpture’s motor will then be timed to correspond with this scientific data in real-time.”

Close-up of artist proposal

Zweig is noted on the national public art circuit for her eccentric installations. In Saint Louis, she employed lumber from demolished houses to create a backward sign on an overpass near that city’s Maplewood neighborhood, correctly viewable only in the rear-view mirrors of passing motorists. In her home town of Milwaukee, Zweig created Pedestrian Drama, featuring a series of high-tech viewing stations. “As pedestrians approach the kiosks, installed on electrical poles, the artworks will activate and begin flapping. Looking inside one of the windows, onlookers will see short scenes of pedestrian encounters,” reported the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in August 2011. “The project became briefly controversial in April of 2009 when some city aldermen were unimpressed by a presentation by members of the Department of Public Works staff who shared preliminary schematic designs.”

A forthcoming interactive piece by Zweig at a public library in Boise, Idaho, “will allow people to write poetry, flash fiction or other literary forms on a typewriter attached to a giant roll of sculpted paper,” the Idaho Statesman reported this month. “The writings will be on display and logged into an archive that the city will keep in perpetuity.”

In January of this year, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, required Zweig to modify a project after the Norfolk Southern Railway refused to cut down trees on its property that blocked the sight of the museum from nearby railroad overpasses. “She originally proposed two ‘anamorphic illusions,’ sculptures that appear random and haphazard when viewed from most angles,” said the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Now she must come up with a new concept that takes the low visibility from the bridges into account.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Top Websites To Buy Instagram Likes + Bonus Tip!

Next Article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.