Solar Showdown Never Flares

Cultural Affairs Director Maria Luisa de Herrera and
artist Nancy Holt look at a model of the Solar Web.

By Jorge Casuso

An anticipated showdown Friday night between opponents of the Solar Web and the creator of the controversial sculpture slated to go up on Santa Monica beach turned out to be nothing more than what it had been billed as all along -- a lecture about art.

There were no flare ups at the Santa Monica Museum of Art like those that livened up an Arts Commission vote two weeks ago to approve final funding for the large astronomical jungle gym. There were no angry words about a work critics charge is an affront to nature, an eyesore marring an unobstructed stretch of beach near the Venice border.

In anything, artist Nancy Holt's one-and-a-half hour slide presentation seemed to lull opponents into a complacent state, as slide after slide of Holt's environmental sculptures were projected on a screen.

The Solar Web -- a sculpture fashioned from steel pipes that spans a 72-foot area and stands 16-feet high - is her most complex work, Holt told a large audience, more than 100 of whom signed a petition supporting the sculpture.

"It's meant to be both visible and invisible," Holt said. "It's giving form to space. I wanted to do something that's open and airy, that you could see right through. I think it will blend in to what's already there on the beach."

But is it safe for children? -- an audience member wanted to know.

"I thought there would be a certain amount of interaction," Holt said, "but these pipes are not easily graspable." In addition, she added, the concrete circle at the center will be covered with a mat.

So if a child falls 16-feet and lands on it it will be safe, the opponent wanted to know.

"It's okay," Holt said, triggering a short debate between members of the crowd.

After a few more questions from opponents who seemed uncomfortable among the art patrons, the presentation quietly ended.

Peter Davison, a vocal opponent who raised his arm to speak, then reconsidered, had a few thoughts he said he didn't have the nerve to share.

"There was a wonderful Freudian slip when she said the arts commission imposed the sculpture on the beach," said Davison, referring to a comment Holt made about a slide that showed the work "superimposed" on a picture of the beach.