Making Art Visible A Conversation with Athena Tacha Athena Tacha, in collaboration with EDAW and AGA, Muhammad Ali Plaza, 2002 –09, Louisville, KY, featur - ing Dancing Steps amphitheater and Star Fountain .

BY HELENI POLICHRONATOU

Athena Tacha was born in and received MA degrees in (Athens) and art history () and a PhD in aesthetics (Sorbonne). Since 1970, she has done large-scale outdoor sculp - ture and conceptual/photographic art and has executed more than 40 large commissions for public sites throughout the United States. Tacha’s work is represented in many museums, and she has exhibited widely. Atlanta’s High Museum hosted a large retrospective in 1989, and a 40-year retro - spective recently finished a tour of Greece. This interview took place when “Athena Tacha: From the Public to the Private” R A

E (organized by the State Museum of Con- P S . E

D temporary Art, , and co-spon - R A H C I

R sored by the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation and the Municipal Art Gallery-G.I. Katsi- gras Museum of Larissa) was on view at the Athens School of Fine Arts, its third venue. Tacha also contributed a site-spe- for Everyone cific installation to the recent inaugural show of the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens, “Polyglossia (30 Expatriate Greek Artists from America and Europe).”

Sculpture April 2012 47 Left and below: Athena’s Web , 2010. White fiber - glass plasterboard tape, installation at the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki.

to connect vertical and horizontal features of each building in a variety of ways, trans - forming their spaces. HP: How does the Onassis piece differ from the earlier ones? AT: I had already made a tape installation for my retrospective at the Contemporary Art Museum in Thessaloniki, and trying to find local material, I discovered a white woven fiberglass tape that is sticky on one side. When I used it at the Larissa Munici- pal Gallery (the second venue), I primarily exploited its self-adhesiveness. At the Onas- Heleni Polichronatou: You were invited to participate in the inaugural exhibition of the sis show, I explored it further. I decided to new Onassis Cultural Center by its curator, Marilena Karra. How did your temporary use the huge column as the anchor for my installation come about? work, wrapping 40 pieces of tape around Athena Tacha: Marilena, who was looking for new work by expatriate Greek artists, found it and then stretching them across the my Web site and decided to invite me, without knowing that my retrospective was traveling corner, as if the column were a fisherman through Greece in 2010. I went to see the huge space, still unfinished in October 2010; and gathering his nets. So, the title for the back at home, I made a model of the area that was assigned to me, a corner facing one of work, Pull , came to mind. From every point the six massive columns that support the room’s 16-foot-high ceiling. (It would take a Samp- of attachment at the top of the walls, son to embrace such columns.) Marilena and the architects wanted me to do one of my the tapes were then arranged in an irregu - “tape ,” a series that I began in Ohio museums in the late ’70s (in 1982, I did lar flow, like rivulets of water, expanding one in Pittsburgh, initiating the Mattress Factory’s series of installations by visiting artists). downwards into a cataract. The flowing For those early works, I selected white plasterboard tape, a low-cost architectural material, tape areas were entirely improvised, like free-hand drawing with brush and ink on paper. HP: How would you explain the meaning of this work? AT: The tape “field” on the walls could be seen as foaming waves, quantum fluctu - ations, or even sensuous organic forms— and, of course, viewers could find other associations in it. But, for me, Pull (elxis , in Greek) can be conceived as the attraction of opposites on many different levels: massive column versus ethereal material; rectilinear ceiling strips versus spirals on the column and curlicues on the walls; clarity versus ambiguity or shifting complexity; fixed ver - sus open-ended, multivalent forms; and “order” versus chaos—ultimately, the work communicated a tug of war between con - trary systems or forces. HP: Turning to outdoor sculpture, the area of work for which you are best known, what

is your most recent public commission? R A E P AT: This past decade has been my most S . E D

productive, perhaps because I quit teaching. R A H C I

I executed seven large public commissions, R

48 Sculpture 31.3 TOP: RICHARD E. SPEAR / BOTTOM: COURTESY THE ARTIST I cro s E L e e c g pede stri di r w n i i P C 1 I . G a t b w v L po r a m A com i n u m HP t o ta s n o c c wa f o I st “Wa a t i (na m pla l d des ed Th ov a work e e i R al r h t c S an n EDs ard ul 5 l u i e nd r rn, ar T: link sr , e e n i g n eve e d i s e d p l u s u o l C r e v i i l ore. , e p ou at n e v in e h e D er th th . e ho n tu x h t l : s l d za b age LE e e m r u o f tati c i , ru t d Many K ct io i g i s , n 25 ed s What 2 ut the mis end g n te ral st nd r o l o c a 2 lo pmen t t a in g Metr l t n a t r (on s s an t e in ed i t c whi ca Ds, 2 e g 0 s n w nd r o t he . he s e u n e v a ar , d n e ur f o -fo r F or on , i s n i d e n 1 x g l p n o A to n C L Th d or it i t an th a c l a t . 1 r p sio as s ra g s fo ent o ED ted ne si g d e d vi n 5 1 w t oth- ig s ch h of Wi , a z a n o as o f t s e d i l i w t water. of colo th o , e he the y e of f o ig n m e h r l l h W a l ab an d th ith 2 b t a m i n a , n L . 0 1 0 2 p er, n un st 21 0 ce f a i th e de l g d th er ra r a n d n a I ll e h t rid ife n o i t G extends . t o n in . ope lant argest the s u M s e i l r e d n u e ou e h t e bor at ard, po s s e d e t i . 0 0 3 : ar r co lo rs ndi Stra At e ch tai in velo k r Wo col i I t ge .” s h t An 20 r o w t t h g i L ion, wo t pe de str ia ns he ho in t s i s n o c hen re d e t a e r c o t n- A m anging a i f v a p ers , m u e a l e sit der b t i h W ts. Actual F n g i other ng lab 02 i f to o f - - i t t d lin t g r e b iti tt thm ore rie n la and r a l u g r steel ppi pm ov c s d n n o i do mi na d e n e h t also t s r es , (yello w a g n DC’ s. in t s n i I pat als ck STOP s e d i s ki and Augu stu s t n e m e or a and and wi designe d from ing w e n e n i g g i R ng ng ent, were a L a l dsh ip Be th es da s iv f al ludin metal at a u M a c i n a h c e m i f o a recent g n o l hs a th of e p a a s s consi new s s i r t y, g r e b wat l l f o f s, w o r l l 1 ion Light n a a ow someti ac - e ar com desc d e & o o f - 5 3 p i c i n Music the i m - 2 H lu b ( l p Was an d nt the l B the h t Wi fo a ca e s , a rela a e on s a e GO er h rc a nd f o He ights, a a a l sg w ur- i e c o o Morg e obelisk m rli- k re st sco t plet a r e v de G n g endi b r e t three , s s l a co e s t r ith a c hi Ob t u n M i ; t p ec e re apl th e i s s ate a ted dea W n i m red) t e h was or n i l m com , m to s t r a e d i d n a smal d n a h t- Ce t r A o l p mm ngt n on e t i or g e of r a l ed el Ma W rd a o ne arch a s B nt ry l es an rda o b r e t s a th ri al e ng g si s s a n O pa nte l ov e i e t h g i t isk n, c ta e i d ani d g W-Tower . o y r e l l a G av one o na me d on, y b a g a r et x t ers r o f mer i e i par fl t an yl dr , r g f o l n in f a t ss a r Boule d sc s n, s, e i t s Mar y a of oatin t t r. W enues plaza ite rp as s t W l a ,e p a t co F , mat er rans long 2009. wer e e i en s R ci f f o t ons? oun t the king r p Th t a in a an d eh t es DC), tc n th e two e ,d i e’s e ci si h side BG ns, m ct a v eh no dn )n b) . d, o a - e t e s, - - - g - - - , - l - l - Sh b i s HP : p a p h AT: a a an ni mat y ave n e c e i e n o m d or ar d the T n a It at r te t me h f h b ro a o c s r. y e sc o io n 6 ( t ee t nt m a th i m m Th h c o t 0 ms oul d m s re er h t b e pr og u p of etw s a lyri e tim th i s s of s l re any i m not at / s e r ee cs n o m am es cen tr d n tran sp e a d e pa d m be p l re th e l o i e s n i s d rp o f al e sin sa more b i f o e t u es a en r r nd o to ail se d g h t e h t r su d m — ) ta b p s your icu s i n l ed t tio in a o rue g e w n p ste n l to es a a n o y th e rl s wo . r t d f a t e h y, rians Th ac w L i d m n r g i r in t r a he i os e k itten li ti us gr . c h synch e a t bar . t ic a a es d n a —e d the R nit e i a by l are ea s l mes my ta wi d i R Ne war k n i a t nat lo ff o th N f h g n i ng w re al y ea w ur al a s u the ith wo th d n a b h t i W ja bla , k r e fl ow si man ca zz pl tes ck ’ e w N me a s s a S , ta t of fo form g (a t u b h ra r ra r toge s bo tr ye s r e J yo ni S a ut i s a ffic te A t u, r th of d n ah d l u o c 70 sla sin und e t . r he W V Tr e h p bs ce aug ha in ul en ay er C b a se s/min u tim e an ent er e s e, the no tes, other b , n I a , a s u t bri dge. a mo ve m d e and m n d e n r d l i co in o t - e Way e) n B m spi re d l road o t Th eh t a m e eh gn ne nd n is e 49 t , - Street stations, to be read by people waiting for the train. I had wanted the Bloomingdale’s Plaza, 2002 –09, Friendship Heights, MD. Public music to be broadcast in the stations every time a train arrived, but that space with Light Obelisk Fountain , animated LEDs, black alu - exceeded the budget—which is always the problem with public art. minum, black granite, and water, 30 x 30 ft.; and Light Riggings , HP: Why did you devote so much of your career to work in public spaces? animated RGB ceiling. AT: I believe in making art visible to everybody—not only the intellectual elite (museum visitors) or the rich collectors who can afford to buy it. The social and in Connections at Franklin Town Park, an entire upheavals of the late 1960s made me feel that I would be an irresponsible block in central (1981–92). Such parks human being if I did not put art in the public domain. I also opted to make are not to be confused with “sculpture gardens,” which my sculpture as an environment—not a standing object—so that it could be are really outdoor sculpture museums. experienced kinesthetically as well as visually (with the body moving through HP: Since the ’70s, artists have made a concerted effort its space) and could serve a function, like landscape architecture. This way, I to reintegrate nature into the built landscape. They could also address issues about the environment—both natural and urban. incorporate plants, rocks, and water into public sculp - HP: In your 1972 “A Call to Artists for Social Action,” you invited artists to resist ture and participate in the rehabilitation of urban areas the corruption of their work by the gallery world. What was the response? destroyed by industrial development. What do you think AT: A number of younger artists at the time felt as I did and, encouraged by a needs to happen between communities and artists to new National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) program, we turned to the solu - make a successful public art program of this kind? tion of proposing art for public spaces (called “site-specific” art after the mid- AT: Modern cities are a real visual and ecological disas - 1970s), with the aim of improving the urban environment and raising people’s ter, particularly in their industrial and suburban sprawl consciousness about art. When I made my first public projects in 1975–76, (the entire area of Attica has become a suburb of some with NEA grants, only one state—Hawaii—had percent-for-art legislation, Athens, which has spread as cancerously as Los Angeles). along with a few cities, including Philadelphia, Miami, and Seattle. However, A number of idealists, like myself, have tried to propose the federal government’s General Services Administration (GSA) had also started solutions for improvement, but even in the case of sup - a program to commission artworks for new federal buildings (I won one of the portive government administrations, art is never given first major commissions, for Norfolk, Virginia). Since then, almost every state, enough funding to make a dent in the ugliness. In city, and county in the country has created some type of public art legislation, the West, few cities outside of Europe—Chicago and which has encouraged this major artistic movement—the first movement since Vancouver come to mind—have a great architectural Dadaism to operate outside the gallery world. tradition or contemporary identity with which to foster HP: Your Franklin Town Park was one of the first public parks created as a work good public art. of art. The conversion of large urban spaces into works of art has become a key HP: The evolution of public art gave birth to new con - trend today, part of a broader intention to create a relationship between art cepts and new content, and younger artists took into and everyday life. Would you like to comment on this issue? consideration local cultural, social, political, and eco - AT: I was perhaps the first artist to conceive of a park as a Gesamtkustwerk , nomic conditions. Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc clashed using its land, plantings, and even utilitarian features as materials (instead with the aesthetic perception of its viewers. In your

of clay, marble, or bronze). I did that in a proposal for the Charles River Step opinion, should artists create in accordance with pub - R A E P Sculptures for Boston’s waterfront (January 1974) and in a proposal for the lic expectations? Should public art develop its own S . E D

Sawyer Point Recreation Park in Cincinnati, Ohio (1977). I realized the same criteria for suitability, quality, and taste that might R A H C I concepts in my “vest-pocket” Tide Park (Smithtown, Long Island, 1976–77) be different way from those of the atelier? R

50 Sculpture 31.3 Connections , 1981 –92. Planted stone terracing, rock clusters, trees, landscape complexes. This can only improve the urban fabric and ultimately, and paths, work located in Franklin Town Park, Philadelphia. ideally, the quality of people’s lives. Even though I am a loner working in my studios with assistants, I have often collaborated with architects. Since 2000, AT: Serra is a great sculptor, but he does not (or did not I have worked exclusively with architectural or engineering firms as an artistic then) have a public consciousness. The Tilted Arc affair consultant and designer of specific parts of their projects. destroyed the future of permanent public art in the HP: What work of yours in a public place do you prefer and why? U.S. After that, administrations became scared to com - AT: I have a lot of favorites, but I’ll name two. Green Acres (1985–87) is a mit funding for permanent projects, and most of them multimedia, environmental sculpture for the courtyard of the Department of turned to temporary projects. I personally believe that Environmental Protection of the State of New Jersey in Trenton. It combines a good artist committed to public art must have a dif - sculptural “step formations” that serve as seats, a green pavement of slate ferent attitude and develop a different artistic vocab - and granite slabs with sandblasted photographs of the endangered landscapes ulary from the studio and gallery artist. I do not mean and species of New Jersey, planters with live plants specified by me, and red that artistic visions and values should be diluted by volcanic rock clusters—bringing together my sculptural, social, environmen - general opinion. The commissioning institution and tal, photographic, and conceptual interests. the artist must inform, educate, and consult the com - My more recent favorite is the Muhammad Ali Plaza (2002–09) in Louis- munity to a great extent, but the general public should ville, Kentucky, where the great boxer was born. In collaboration with the never dictate the art (too much “listening” to the com - landscape architecture firm EDAW, I designed a glass waterfall at the top, munity can be destructive). The artist, who has spent the Dancing Steps amphitheater and pavement of the middle level, and in an entire lifetime studying how to make art and devel - the center, the Star Fountain with a seven-minute program of animated oping a personal vision, must ultimately create the LEDs lighting 48 glass columns that spiral inside a star-shaped basin. You public artwork. Even communal art, like the medieval can see a video of the light dance of Star Fountain on YouTube. cathedrals, had a leading mind, an architect or a sculp - HP: What are you working on now? tor who conceived and directed the project. AT: I have been invited to do a large outdoor installation at Grounds For Sculp - HP: Some new cities have demonstrated strong growth ture, which will stay up for a year, and I hope it can be executed by 2013. in all forms of art. For example, artists were involved On a smaller scale, I have started on an extensive cycle of digital photo-works in the urban design of Villeneuve d’Ascq, France, show - about the cyclical interaction between humans and nature, using my pho - ing that public space can be conceived as a living space tographs of the fantastic stone landscape of Petra, which I visited again last through the power of art in relation to architecture, spring. Like all of my art, these works are about our environment, on Earth residents’ needs, and aesthetic quality. What do you and in the universe. see as the future for artists in urban planning? AT: I have seen only a few views of Villeneuve d’Ascq, Heleni Polichronatou’s PhD thesis for the Athens School of Fine Arts was L E N N

E but I definitely think that artists should be involved in Large Scale Artwork in Public Space: From the ’60s to the 21st Century F M I

J urban design projects, as well as in architectural and (2007).

Sculpture April 2012 51 T I D E R C O T O H P

52 Sculpture 31.3