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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Daring Dandruff
Static loves modern art, especially those live construction workers and the Cyclone fence around Vortex, the vertical Richard Serra sculpture threatening the sky above the new Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. What you think is just a plain old fence is actually a statement on modern art’s inaccessibility. And the construction workers: They’re letting viewers in on the process of modern art. As a stroke of neo-conceptual inspiration, this set-up is pure genius.
But the people at the Modern won’t take credit for it; they say the fence is there to keep people off the floor stones inside the sculpture. See, heavy foot traffic has loosened some of these stones from their plastic support columns. So until the large men in hard hats and work boots finish replacing those plastic columns with formed concrete, the fence will be keeping the unwashed (basically, all of us) from experiencing the nearly 68-foot Twizzler bite. This makes Static a sad panda.
One thing Museum folks stressed to Static is that the fence, contrary to popular rumor, is not there to keep people from being hit with falling rust chips. Vortex is supposed to rust (and Museum personnel are supposed to continuously clean up what is shed). Made of Corten steel, the massive construct will slowly lose its skin to oxidization, changing from its current burnt-orange to a deep brown. Museum spokesperson Susan Rogers said that Vortex will probably achieve its patina in about a year. The rusting is part of the art. Again, pure genius.
Offense: Tailgating
When one writer steals another writer’s words, it’s called plagiarism. But what do you call it when one writer lifts another’s curiosity? Fort Worth Weekly filed a request under the Texas public information act with city hall on Feb. 21 for records dealing with the controversy that has erupted (as reported in today’s cover story) in the city’s IT Solutions department. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter caught a whiff of the Weekly snooping and filed her own request — for a copy of the Weekly’s request— and then, Static is told, asked for exactly the same documents. In the meantime, Static is filing its own request — to cut the poaching. Surely the bright lights in the big city daily can come up with ideas of their own. And maybe even with their own misspellings. Tuesday’s Star-T story included the same misspelled name as the story posted Friday on the Weekly’s web site.
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