It wasn’t a fair question, or even an especially inspired one. I ask it anyway.
“Why, if we live in one of the hottest cities on the planet, isn’t there more shade here?”
I hadn’t telephoned Carrie Brown or Maria Salenger to complain about the weather. I’d called to talk about ¡Sombra! Experiments in Shade, a newish public art project about urban heat in Phoenix. The program was developed by the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture and had bagged a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge; every penny of that grant was meant to be spent creating shade with temporary art installations all over the Valley. Salenger, an architect and co-owner of architecture firm coLAB Studio, worked with local artist Fausto Fernandez to develop the project’s call for artists.
“We were looking for three things,” Brown, deputy director of the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, says of the artists chosen for the project. “The structure needed to provide respite from heat, and to use materials not normally used in public art. And then we were looking at how the piece engages the community.”
Nine artists were selected from more than 80 applicants, some of whom were from out of state.
“What do people from Seattle know about the Phoenix heat?” I dare to ask. “I mean, isn’t driving around looking for shade sort of something you have to live with for years to really understand?”
“Bloomberg required that the City do a national call,” Salenger explains. “We agreed we wanted at least four of the nine artists to be local. We ended up with four from Phoenix and one from Tucson.”
Those local artists knocked it out of the park when it came to the part about “different ways of fabricating” the piece. Like Bobby Zokaites’s “Botanical Canopy,” a giant, plant-like sculpture woven from more than 10,000 feet of nylon parachute cord. This one’s my favorite, and not just because it was erected at Cortez Park, my childhood stomping grounds. Charmingly, its leaf-like sunshades resemble multicolored tennis rackets that cast geometric patterns onto the pavement.
And then there’s the “Chinese Chorizo” installation by Tucson artist Feng-Feng Yeh at Eastlake Park – a giant, sausage-shaped canopy inspired by a forgotten Arizona delicacy. This one’s all about Phoenix’s redlined communities and the long-ago relationship of Chinese and Mexican grocers in marginalized neighborhoods.
“We required that all the out-of-state artists visit Phoenix last summer,” Brown says. “We wanted them to experience the heat as part of the process of creating public art about creating shade.”
I gasp. Brown notices.
“I know,” she says. “A couple of them were overwhelmed by the heat. But I promise you, we provided them with lots of water.”
– Robrt L. Pela
READ IT: The Story That Wouldn’t Die
KJZZ reporter turned novelist Christina Estes is back with the second installment in her Jolene Garcia mystery series. In The Story That Wouldn’t Die (Minotaur Books, $28), Valley TV reporter Garcia is dubious about how “accidental” an esteemed local businessman’s death in a car crash was. Her sleuthing leads to eyebrow-raising secrets, shady deals and potential corruption at Phoenix City Hall. As she did in her Tony Hillerman Prize-winning debut, Off the Air, Estes draws from her own experiences, in this case covering City Hall for nearly a decade as a journalist. In a case of life imitating art, Estes recently became director of communications for the vice mayor of Phoenix, placing her inside the organization she fictionalizes in these pages. “The book was written before I even considered the job,” Estes said ahead of its August release. “But the timing? Yeah, it’s wild. I guess I’ll soon find out who has a sense of humor at City Hall.” Learn more at christinaestes.com
– Leah LeMoine
