Administration wants you to talk about ‘Swamp Creature Friends with your real friends

Art is a welcome addition, but students need more say

Swamp Creature Friends is the newest art installation to appear on Danforth Campus—this time on the South 40 Swamp. It’s kind of weird looking. It’s three amorphous figures made out of intertwining thick green wire and when night hits, lights turn on and it glows like the ghosts from “Ghostbusters.” The whole setup seems purposeless and another example of Washington University’s runaway art budget. That is, until you think about what Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Rob Wild said during a pre-orientation training session—a sentiment that’s has since been echoed by Chancellor Mark Wrighton and Provost Holden Thorp.

To paraphrase, he wanted students to interact with the statue, to take selfies and climb on it (but frankly, we’re still not sure how that last one is possible). In other words, the administration wants students to look AND touch. Swamp Creature Friends isn’t some static piece of art that you’d find at the Rijksmuseum or the Louvre. It’s supposed to be a new interactive part of the Swamp landscape.

While it may seem like Wash. U.’s approach to art is a little erratic (those green tile rocks near Olin Library that might be for sitting on?), the University has a six-page document called the “Art on Campus Policy” that it adheres to. There is a “Art on Campus Committee” which consists of the director of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the director of capital projects in Facilities Planning and Management, the provost, the executive vice chancellor for administration as well as five ad-hoc members that cycle in an out that oversee the addition of art on campus. When a new construction or renovation project that exceeds $4 million on campus begins, that committee receives 1 percent—a number capped at $500,000—to put towards installing art on campus.

While the committee has nearly a dozen mission statements and goals, the one that’s important when talking about the swamp monster is the following:

“The University’s purpose for implementing the policy is to: Create a distinctive and inspiring sense of place with each project and site that serves as a forum for communication and exchange”

Swamp Creature Friends, as odd-looking as it is, fits that notion. It stands right on the border of the actual Swamp, one of the centers of undergraduate life on campus. The green wire flying in every direction conjures up the same feelings of fun that can usually be felt at such a social spot on campus.

If you think about it, “Swamp Creature Friends” isn’t the only piece of art that reflects its landscape. Ainsa I, a filigree in front of the Bauer Hall atrium, was actually the first piece of artwork installed by the commission for Art on Campus. The human figure made of stainless steel letters from nine different alphabets reflects the forward-thinking and international approach taught in the business classes held in the building behind it.

Even if you have a problem with the University spending money on art, you have to at least admit that features like “Swamp Creature Friends” and Ainsa I are at least better than the Bunny, or “Thinker on a Rock” as it’s more formally known.

But why should the Art on Campus committee have complete control over art on campus? Drawing from another one of their mission statements, if art is supposed to “enrich [student’s] day to day lives, but also develop their abilities to understand and appreciate art,” shouldn’t students be able to pick art that they appreciate and find enriching? That’s why Student Life proposes the Art on Campus committee expands to include students—other than the few who sit on the committee—to be involved in selecting art. The initiative could take a variety of forms, such as having students vote on artist proposals or even allowing student submissions.

If you allow students more freedom, good things can happen. The Lasky-Landscape was a seating area situated between Etta’s Cafe and the Mildred Kemper Lane Art Museum built by two graduate students in 2009 as part of an architecture competition. Although it was dismantled in 2015, students remembered it as a social space central to the art school identity. If two graduate students could do that with a budget of $5,000, imagine what the rest of the Wash. U. campus could come up with.

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