It’s Your Life / People, Places and Things to do. : WALK-UP ART : Courtyard Sculpture Beckons the Curious
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A rhetorical question: if a work of public art sat in a forest, seen by no one, would it still qualify as public art?
There’s no particular rush of walk-up traffic by the spot where Helle Scharling-Todd’s sculpture, “Inner Conversations,” sits, between buildings and an expansive lawn at the Ventura County Government Center.
And more’s the charm, as it beckons to the curious with a friendly appeal, neither overly intellectual nor simplistic. A closed triangle of stylized figures, bearing a resemblance to Keith Haring’s graffiti people, are decorated with mosaic tiles.
On these figures are much smaller, hidden figures: a pregnant woman, a man with a surfboard (or is it a shield?) and a dog, and another person of indeterminate gender either crouching or climbing. These are ambiguous enough to elicit different interpretations--is it art about New Age idealism or humanity in fear of itself?
On a bright summer’s day, the viewer leans toward the former.
* Helle Scharling-Todd’s sculpture “Inner Conversation,” in the courtyard of the Ventura County Government Center, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura.
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