FEATURED ART COLLECTION:
CORPUS CHRISTI
PUBLIC ART COLLECTION

Highlights of Corpus Christi's Public Art Collection include a group of sculptures located downtown. Themes range from its history such as Sherman Coleman's Friendship Monument to more contemporary culture and events.

By far the city's most famous native daughter was Tejano singer, Selena Quintanilla-Perez. In 1995 her former fan club president shot her to death. She was 23. In her short life, she had already sold over 60 million records and won a Grammy. The sheer tragedy of the event evoked a national outpouring. Jennifer Lopez played her in the 1997 movie, Selena. Known as La Flor, Selena often sported a signature white rose. Wade (Buddy) Tatum's Statue is part of the larger Memorial to her, the Mirador del Flor at the Seawall. It has become a pilgrimage shrine, considered Corpus Christi's Alamo. The real leather outfit she is wearing in the sculpture is in the Smithsonian.

Whataburger (another Texas institution) is considered by many to have 'invented' the quarter-pound burger. Headquartered in Corpus Christi till it decamped for San Antonio in 2009, the company supported the local baseball stadium, Whataburger Field, home to the Hooks, the AA team of the Houston Astros. In front is a sculpture. For the Love of the Game Seth Vandable's 17' tall ballplayer has the unofficial distinction of being the largest bronze baseball monument in the world.

The Festival of the Arts, is held each March. Usually there is a participatory artwork. In 2008 Jack Gron and Greg Reuter created Tracings of Corpus Christi, from items found on the beach.

FEATURED ARTIST: ADAM KUBY

In the public art world, there is a lot of discussion about siting artworks. Like any good design project, the goal is to find some meaning in the place itself and from that generate a work that will comment on it in a way that locks it into its setting, resonates with its audience, and ideally transforms both the place and how people think about it. Most of it falls short because that's a lot of baggage to attach to a single sculpture. And it requires a strong committment from the artist to come up with the idea, the client to support it and the community to embrace it. If any one falls short, it doesn't work. What Portland Artist Adam Kuby brings to the table is that he has thought a lot about art and its landscape, and the manmade and natural. Through the use of a minimal palette of trees and stones, he has created a body of work that has contributed to the larger dialogue in a way that actually moves it forward.

On Jan 5, 2002, the 93-year old JM Weatherwax Building was destroyed by arson. A new school was built in 2007 which reused some of the historic facade elements. What remained of the sandstone construction blocks were stored for several years until they were eventually repurposed into Breaker located nearby. The piece is about cultural history and incorporating it into the landscpae.

There are two companion works for a stormwater facility in Madison Valley, Washington that are about the power of nature. Incrementally is about the action of flooding on the area and explores nature's power to destroy. Not very far away, Hydro-Geo-Bio covers the exposed facade of giant new 14 ft. tall storm water holding tank. directing stormwater from above over the wall. It has bird nesting sites in the wall, faux-bark facades lead to 29 cavity nesting bird houses embedded there for future nest sites.

FEATURED ARCHITECT: JOEL SANDERS ARCHITECT

In 2011 Joel Sanders published a book with Diana Balmori, Groundwork, Between Landscape and Architecture which explores the interdisciplinary trend of architects and landscape architects who blur the traditional distinction between building and site highlighting 25 iconic projects. There are many aspects of sustainable construction which are not particularly photogenic such as the use of recycled materials, better insulation or even building orientation. Green roofs are more quickly comprehensible in an image. Two of his highlighted projects feature them. The roofs are emblematic of his approach to sensitively siting buildings so that they become more environmental solutions while incorporating cultural history into the works.

The Seongbukdong Residences consists of 12 staggered L-shaped units situated on a sloping hillside in Seoul. It utilizes the concept of the borrowed view and reinterprets traditional Korean houses in a modern vocabulary. The Woodstock Library Annex currently under construction is located on a sensitive wetlands site. The building design includes remediation features, sustainable materials and energy systems as well as paying homage to the cultural context of Woodstock.

Another theme of Joel Sanders work is digital media. The balcony screen Bobst Library Pixel Veil is a response to an unfortunate problem that NYU faced with their library atrium which became a magnet for psychologically fragile students. The resulting metal screen creates a secure yet visually porous membrane that is aesthetically compatible with the atrium designed by Philip Johnson in 1968. It consists of laser-cut aluminum panels and vertical supports painted to match the existing bronze handrail. The Pixel Matrix builds on the affinity between the original building and the language of digital information - both rely on the logic of the square matrix. It references the building’s underlying square grid that Johnson expressed in the square coffered ceiling and concentric square reading lights, as well as the language of digital information that encrypts data through bar codes composed of square modules.