One of the most popular and expensive pieces of public art at Kansas City’s new airport terminal now sits in a warehouse and may never be reinstalled due to safety concerns.
Nick Cave’s kinetic sculpture “The Air Up There” cost $1 million to create and install. It consists of 2,800 colorful spinners that dangled from the ceiling of the check-in hall at Kansas City International Airport.
But it was removed in October after the part of one spinner fell to the floor below. No one was hurt, but in the interest of caution, city officials took it down and had it inspected.
On Friday, the city’s Municipal Art Commission got the bad news. An eight-page engineering report concluded that if the work was reinstalled without any modifications, there was a chance one or more of the spinners could fail like the one in October and cause injury to someone below.
The report put the blame on the failure of a clip of the kind that fishermen use to connect hooks and lures on their lines. The ones used are insufficient to withstand the weight and sway of the spinners over time, the report said.
“So basically the conclusion was this is too much of a risk to reinstall?” Commissioner Tyler Enders asked Mark Spencer, arts program manager for the city’s aviation department.
“The engineer report only commented on the existing conditions,” Spencer said. “They did not provide a plan on how to re-engineer it. They were only asked to comment on what was installed.”
Cave, a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute who is now on the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, could not be immediately reached for comment. Nor could designer Bob Faust.
But they are aware of the city’s decision.
“I talked with Nick before the holidays, and there’s a lot of disappointment all around,” said James Martin, the city’s public art administrator. “Certainly they understood the need to take it down as quickly as possible. I did let Nick know that the potential outcome (was) decommissioning the work.”
The city is obliged to spend at least 1% of the estimated costs for construction, reconstruction or remodeling of municipal buildings on art or “other aesthetic adornments.”
Only one other art work among the 28 commissioned for the airport project cost more than “The Air Up There.” Artist Leo Villareal’s “Fountain (KCI)” of light was budgeted at $1.2 million.
Cave’s work was a fan favorite among travelers. While arriving at airport security lines, they could look up to see thousands of colorful wind spinners.
“The custom wind spinners depict icons from the Kansas City region such as fountains, a shuttlecock, native animals, as well as symbols of equality and love, inspired by the magic of flight,” is how the Kansas City Art Institute described them.
“The Air Up There” ranked No. 1 with readers who responded to an unscientific, online poll that The Star conducted a year before the airport opened.
It’s unclear what will become of the work now.
“While I obviously trust and understand why this piece cannot be reinstalled where and how it was, is there any opportunity to continue to work with the artist and with engineering to explore any potential sort of second life for the piece?” commissioner Kaitlyn Bunch asked. “Can it be engineered in a different way? Can it be installed in a different location, rather than just completely, you know, cutting out here and keeping this artwork either stored in a warehouse or have it destroyed or whatever might happen to it from here?”
City officials haven’t figured that out yet.
One thing’s for sure, Spencer said. It won’t be destroyed, but will continue on as a city asset, even if that means that it remains in storage indefinitely.
Martin said Cave is under no obligation to refund his fee, as the artwork was only guaranteed against manufacturing defects for one year. And the city will not be getting reimbursed by its insurance company, either.
“I looked into that with our risk management office, and they said it would not be eligible for insurance coverage,” Martin said.
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