Making Waves in the Public Art Community

There is a common misconception that art is a solitary practice—that painters are confined to their easels and writers to their typewriters, working feverishly in secluded quarters. There is perhaps an even greater misconception that the viewing of artwork is an insular experience, relegated to galleries and museums.

Local artist and architect Alison Wright is looking to change that. 

"There's a way to have artwork that's not just arbitrary but actually relates to certain themes and stories within the community," said Wright, who has been a resident of Manhattan Beach since the early 1980s. "Artwork can relate on multiple levels to a variety of people."

Although initially designed for a gallery in Culver City, Wright's "If Slater Bowled"—designed and named after champion surfer Kelly Slater—is a testament to the impact public art has on the community and has become a prominent fixture throughout Manhattan Beach's seaside, downtown and residential areas since first going up June 21. But perhaps that's because, at first glance, the artwork offers a mix of humor and bewilderment. 

Standing 10 feet tall and more than three feet wide, the larger-than-life Crayola-red bowling pin and its accompanying four-foot diameter black ball seem like set pieces straight out of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, spiraling down Alice's rabbit hole and landing upright at the base of the pier or the concrete stretch of the Strand. Or resting against a well known Ardmore Avenue home.

"At Bruce's Beach, someone thought it was a prop for a child's birthday party," Wright said. "Someone else suggested this very elaborate game that involved more balls, batting the ball toward the pin, and swimmers in the ocean. It's captured the imagination of a lot of people in ways that I couldn't even begin to predict."

"If Slater Bowled" and its companion website commemorate heroism in it's many manifestations, Wright said. The site documents the various locations and reactions to the pin through photography, video and historical quotes.

The enthusiastic welcome the exhibit has been receiving from passersby is the most an artist can ask from its audience. But it takes a little more than a double-take to grasp the juxtaposition of bowling and surfing, two seemingly unrelated sports. 

"[The project] originated with the concept of heroes and our culture's relationship with heroes," Wright said. "If you take one hero out of context and put them into another context, they may or may not be a hero anymore. Kelly Slater in a room full of bowlers may not be recognized, but put Kelly Slater in a room full of surfers and he's amazing."

Acknowledging that heroes share similar characteristics—namely "a competitive spirit, ambition and charisma," says Wright, quoting from Slater's website—the artist decided to mesh these two sports together. She designed the pin, which is made from EPS Styrofoam and espy resin, to be rounded on one side yet flat on the other, mimicking a surfboard.

Further embodying the synergetic nature of art, Wright worked with surfboard shaper Mark Brog, owner of Soul Performance in Redondo Beach, on the sculpture's design and construction. 

Once the pair had an outline for the project, they spent long hours in Brog's Redondo Beach factory from February through May 2009 constructing and painting the pin and its ball. 

"I stood up from above, looking down, and Mark would shape and I would say, 'More, less, stop,' " she said, laughing. "The ball was also an interesting process because it's hollow inside. We used a balloon to make the shape and had several disasters before it actually happened."

The exhibit caught the attention of Manhattan Beach resident Sharon Greco at the annual ARTWALK event last summer, while residing in its first home at the Helms Bakery in the Washington Corridor of Culver City. According to Wright, Greco was supportive of the piece and a driving force in its movement around Manhattan Beach, understanding both the work's thematic element and the town's need for public art. 

"Past and current commissions have really been trying to make inroads," Wright said. "There are cities like Pasadena and Culver City where public art is huge; we've been using them as models to develop a public art community that really relates to the community."

Yet it's not the scale or prevalence of the artwork that matters to Wright, but what it represents. It was during her time as a former Manhattan Beach Cultural Arts Commissioner that Wright noticed a majority of local public art depicts the beach environment literally. What she describes as the monotony of such pieces caused her to think outside of the ocean when creating "If Slater Bowled," if unintentionally. 

"It intrigued me in how to [represent the city] without replicating a dolphin or a
wave or something else that's ocean related," Wright said.

Manhattan Beach is relatively homogenous, said Councilwoman Portia Cohen, who views the incorporation of unfamiliar perspectives in Wright's art as an educational opportunity for the community. "The case of 'If Slater Bowled,' while less cultural than provocative, serves to stop folks in their daily tracks and offer a new perspective and some humor."

Cohen said she agrees with Wright that although public art is not at prevalent here as it is in neighboring towns, Manhattan Beach has been taking the initiative to support cultural arts, especially that of local artists.

"Our city charges developers of large commercial, industrial and residential
projects a 1 percent project fee and dedicates that fee solely to our city's 'art trust
fund' for local public art projects," Cohen said. " During 2009, the city also
held a summer Metlox Art & Music series, featuring the works of local artists
accompanied by live musical performances; we hope to reinstate this program once
our financial position improves."

It's fitting, then, that the exhibit's current home is the Metlox Plaza, suspended
over the escalators like a leftover ornament from an Alexander Calder mobile. Wright and Greco, who is now the curator of the exhibit, decided on the location because of its resemblance to a bowling alley: the pin hanging, waiting for the next player, and the ball swept into the trellis, or "gutter," above.

"If Slater Bowled," which was installed June 21, will be displayed in the plaza until Nov. 21. The future site of the piece, like a surfer's day in the waves, is uncertain.

"People want to see both the pin and the ball in the water simultaneously, so that will have to happen at some point," Wright said. "I've had someone else suggest that since it's been on the ground, maybe it should be up in the air pulled behind one of those air planes that do advertising."

Of course, the burning question in every passerby's mind is whether the piece will make the transition from public to performance art and be surfed in the waves of Manhattan Beach?

"An L.A. lifeguard paddled it out, but she didn't fully stand up on it," Wright said. "Mark Levy, a local, very talented surfer, and his brother Derek have agreed that when the time is right they will surf it. But it does run the risk of being damaged, so I've been putting that off until the end of its journey.

"Of course," she added, "Kelly Slater may hear about it and just have to come and surf it, too."