Well, it’s here. The long-awaited, often-delayed and somewhat-controversial flying netting now graces the sky above our soon-to-be-open Civic Space park.
Her Secret Is Patience, while certainly pretty at night, is missing something. Great art should evoke some sort of emotion, whether its wonder or disgust, but all the giant fish net evokes is, well, questions.
Questions like:
•Where’s the shade? In a city that’s 100+ degrees five months out of the year, why doesn’t the largest structure in the newest park offer some relief from the heat?
•Why does it seem it’s supposed to be only viewed at night? The lights make the netting look great, but most people don’t frequent parks at night, do they?
•Again, shade. It’s implied shade. It’s hot here. How is anyone going to use a park when they are sweating in the 115 degree heat island Phoenix resides on?
What do you think of it? What are some nicknames you can think of? What does the structure invoke from you?
The artist renderings made me think (crudely): that looks like a big piece of upside down blue poo. I am pleased to see that it looks better in reality than it did in the mock-up, and I agree with you: it doesn’t look that great during the day, and doesn’t seem to serve any real function. It does look spectacular at night though – I have a great view from my kitchen window… but, yeah, how about some shade? I walked by it last evening and wondered how long it will take for that big net to fill up with garbage. It seems that if they made the net a little denser, it would look just as pretty at night, and serve a shade function during the day.
“the jellyfish.” i will be doing everything within my power to propagate this nickname over the next few months. i think that much like chicago’s “bean” at millennium park, “jellyfish” will serve as a symbol for the civic space park and because of its size and proximity to light rail, something of a symbol for downtown.
I think that all of the discussion about why the “Her Secret Is Patience” doesn’t offer more shade is off the mark. The art is art, for crying out loud! Art doesn’t *have* to serve any function. Its existence as art is its function.
Also, it seems that the park has plenty of young trees planted throughout. I’m sure that in a few years, these will grow up to be big trees, offering much better shade than concrete and metal structures. Good parks inherently take a while to develop, as nature doesn’t build shade as fast as we’re used to most things being put up here in Phoenix. The park may not be everything we want now, but I think it has the potential to grow into a great place.
As far as shade goes, as a native Phoenician I’m actually very impressed with the amount of green (read: non-xeriscape) vegetation that exists in this park. Once you traverse through the park one gets a much better idea of it’s size and scope, as opposed simply driving by it.
Also, trees have to start somewhere. Once all of the park’s non-desert trees (thank god) reach fair maturity, the park will be an incredibly, heavenly respite from the concrete and generally shade-less palo verde jungle it remains surrounding it.
The park in-person is better than any of the original renderings, and for this I’m proud. For once Phoenix may not have done something mediocre, western kitsch or simply half-ass. The beautiful grassy areas seems larger, and again, the trees more plentiful too.
My only qualm (though it is minor) is the vast contrast between daytime “Jellyfish” and nighttime Jellyfish. During the daylight hours the blue netting material is much, much more transparent and dull than some of the original renderings would have suggested. However, it’s almost the opposite after dark–our Jellyfish is frankly beautiful, even if certain “crude interpretations” of the female form come to mind (had to say it). It’s blue-violet simply glows at night. Even when driving toward the park from a distance, before you can even see the actual installation, you can almost see it’s aura.
Anyway, I better stop before it starts having my children. I love it that much.