A series of 8 foot high
metal letters spelling out HERE on the Berkeley side of the border and THERE on
the Oakland side, commissioned in 2005 as part of Berkeley’s mandated ‘public
art’ component in or around eligible public building projects, has been
creating a bit of a stir ever since it was erected. Even though there has been
no official Oakland reaction to being the ‘THERE’ side of the boundary instead
of the ‘HERE’, there’s a nagging feeling that Berkeley’s innate superiority,
reflected in being ‘HERE’, is a snub to the slightly ragged more ethnically
diverse Oakland.
The original call for
artwork submissions, on the City’s website states:
Not sure I think the winning
project met that criteria but who cares once the city’s officials could
describe it as a whimsical piece with literary connotations like the Poetry
Walkway downtown. Gertrude Stein, whose misused quote about Oakland ‘there
is no there there’ is hinted at in
this sculpture never actually disparaged her hometown but meant that she could
no longer go home after discovering that her childhood home had been torn down.
Ironically, the HERE THERE
sculpture is far more pleasing than the ‘official’ There! sculpture in Jack London Square by artist Roslyn
Mazzili.
But finally, after years of
feeling that Oakland was being insulted, Berkeley’s own version of the Tea
Party decided to knit a woolen cozy to slip over the T as a protest against the
sculpture. Now, Berkeley officials have decided to show their worst and most
humorless face by demanding the knitters remove their woolly sheath and are threatening
unspeakable acts against these domestic terror-knitters.
Personally, I think it’s
another storm in a Berkeley teacup and the re-facement of the sculpture adds
character at the very least to the dull original. Oakland can just sit back and
laugh at their smaller northern neighbor and marvel at the amount of spare time the city has to waste.
Jill,
Gertrude stein did say that, but she was speaking about Alice B's natal home. Ms Stein was born in Pennsylvania...
JoAnn
Posted by: JoAnn | June 01, 2010 at 07:26 PM
Yes! But she was referring to Oakland, right? And am I right that it was about a home she cared about being 'gone'? Or am I just another Stein user, like all the other miserable losers???
Posted by: JP | June 01, 2010 at 08:17 PM
you totally beat me to this one. i've been trying to come up with a clever way to blog this- i love it. i love the sculpture and am totally not insulted by the there/here (oakalnd born and raised). it's all about yarnbombing to bring it home.
Posted by: themacinator | June 01, 2010 at 08:47 PM
So, here's the birth history....Alice B was actually born in San Francisco. Gertrude was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1874, and her father's work took the family to Vienna and Paris and back to America, where they settled in Oakland - all before Gertrude was a tender 5 years old. Gertrude attended the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland School and in 1892, after the deaths of her parents her brother arranged for her to go live with her mother's family in Baltimore...
Posted by: JP | June 02, 2010 at 07:16 AM