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This Week: The Complaint Letter and the Coolest Truck You've Ever Seen

This Week: The Complaint Letter and the Coolest Truck You've Ever Seen

August 29, 2024

A reader complaint is an important benchmark for a fledgling publication. Like a new couple’s first fight, it shows that stakes have been established, trust has accumulated, enough at least to be broken. Which, let me tell you, comes as a surprise to somebody who spends most of their day typing at their kitchen table. “Oh yeah,” I think, “people are reading this.” But the flattery wears thin pretty quick, and you’re left with… the complaint.

Maybe it will be easier if I just showed you. It’s from Polly Morris, chair of the Milwaukee Public Art Subcomittee, and all-around cool person:

I've been enjoying your weekly calendar email, though I'd like to talk to you about the art car, which you so airily dismissed. That's a city-based artist-in-residence program the Public Art Subcommittee spent nearly three years attempting to get off the ground--one that provides a year's employment to an artist and an opportunity to bring an artist's voice and an artist's way of thinking to bear on some of the city's pressing problems. (The current PAIR was in residence with the Department of Public Works.) Not a new idea by any means--NY and LA have had these programs forever--but as usual it took a long time and a lot of sweat from a lot of people to move that needle here. The PASC had been looking for a way to make a bigger impact with the tiny public art budget than doling out small project grants, and we did a lot of research on municipal AIR programs.

Which, okay--I’m not going to get defensive here. I’ll admit that I didn’t exactly do a deep dive on the Art Car, though I don’t think I dismissed it either. I talk about a lot of things in this newsletter, and not all of them get a full sentence. You can take a look at last week’s email and decide for yourself whether I was too glib. I’ll say that I definitely did make the mistake of linking to mega-right-leaning publication, which was just the result of assembling the newsletter in too much haste. So, sorry about that, Polly and everyone. Those guys suck, and I don’t like their take on the Art Car.

Because the truth is, I love the Art Car. Sarah and I encountered it on our visit to Center Street Daze last-last weekend, and I think my enthusiasm for it was evident on Instagram.

Though, okay, maybe not the most incisive commentary. Can I take a second to remind you all that I’m not an art critic? But by way of apology, I’d like to extend a more thoughtful unpacking of my feelings for this weird, fun, child’s toy come to life.

NO LICENSE TO KILL, DRIVE, OR MUCH OF ANYTHING REALLY

To be totally honest, I don’t want any context when I’m enjoying a work of art for the first time. I don’t usually read artist statements, author’s notes, or the long paragraphs of illegible script on the backs of wine bottles. I love to judge a book by its cover. In many cases, it’s my favorite part of the book.

Does my thumb look weird here? Why is my thumb so weird?

So in my opinion, “Art Car” is precisely the right amount of context for the end product of a city-run artist-in-residence program. Not because context doesn’t matter, or because I think art should speak for itself (it doesn’t, and shouldn’t), or because I’m a contrarian and a jerk, but because visual art in particular needs to hit us, first of all, from far away.

This is something painters spend time thinking about, how a painting needs to hit you twice, first from far away, then from close-up. The close view is the one, I think, that gets the most acclaim. It’s the hard-won analytical view, the smart person’s take, the detail-informed deduction. It’s where our most intimate feelings about art come from. So yes, important.

But the thing about art, and public art especially, is that it’s not for artists, or critics, or curators--people ready to devote lots of time to analysis. It’s for people in general. And people, speaking generally, couldn’t care less about the details. They have jobs, and kids, and a responsibility to Google what does a county treasurer do whenever there’s an election. What I’m saying is, they can be forgiven when, at Center Street Daze, they come upon the Art Car, shriek with delight, and breeze right past the framed page of 11-pt type explaining what the thing is for.

Call me anti-intellectual (please don’t, I’m sensitive) but I think the far view is where the meat is. It’s the work’s power, the part that blasts out from the frame like a cannon, knocks us hard on our tailbone, leading ultimately to persistent disc complications. It’s the part that gets us excited, no matter if we belong to the art intelligentsia or not, whether we’re six or sixty. It’s this part:

Notice the interested people, actual human beings, looking at it, wanting very badly to touch. Touching, in many cases. At the time, I was actually trying to get a shot of it without bystanders, but couldn’t. Because people like the Art Car. I like the Art Car! The Art Car, without explanation or justification, rules.

What we, the humans of Milwaukee, aren’t so crazy about is this:

The context, the close view, the itsy bitsy type we’re supposed to read hunched over in the middle of the street. I’m not saying there aren’t people interested in reading it. Sarah did (my wife, not the artist, Sarah Davitt) and I’ll certainly make a point to ask her to summarize it for me someday. Because of course context matters. What I’m saying is, there’s a disconnect here. The whole heap of enthusiasm for the Art Car fails to translate into an interest for what the work is supposed to be for, or about.

Did you know the Art Car is intended to address reckless driving and create safer, stronger neighborhoods? I’m not saying it doesn’t do that, just that I wouldn’t know if it does. Even now, as a guy sitting here spending hours writing about it, I would very strongly prefer not to read another word about what the Art Car is supposed to be for. And, if I can offer an opinion, maybe this is something the Public Art Subcommittee should consider? After all, I’m a guy who likes to read things. A smart person, by certain metrics. But oh boy do I not want to read that page of text, or listen to someone explain what the art is about.

I don’t mean for this to come off as a jab. I know it’s sounding that way, but I swear guys, this is just how I am. My main point is that the Art Car doesn’t need justification. The city should be spending money on art in any case, and if the end result happens to kick ass, then all the better. But if all we have to say about it is “wow cool truck,” don’t take that as flippancy or condescension. Because we really mean it. It’s a cool-ass truck.