ART HERE AND THERE
works by
Iran Do Espirito Santo, Liz Magor,
Thomas Glassford
The possibility of placing similar objects at a number of different sites, as a way to bind together far flung locations, proved irresistible to a number of InSITE artists. While the idea has merit, the problem with the works of this type in InSITE97 is that something which isn't particularly worthwhile in one location is not made more worthwhile by being in many locations.
Iran Do Espirito produced ten cement replicas of dice and placed one at the
Santa Fe Depot, one at the CECUT, one at the Children's Museum, one at the ReinCarnation
Building, etc. etc. At most of these locations, besides being shyly displayed, the dice
aren't large enough or colorful enough to stand out and be noticed. Not being noticed,
they have no impact.
And why dice?
Liz Magor's "Blue
Students" are more conspicuous and even more ubiquitous than Do Espirito's dice. The
work consists of hundreds of photographs of high school students on both sides of the
border. These are printed on emulsion-coated glass which is then mounted over black paper.
The images that result seem more suggestive of a funeral for victims of a bus crash than
of young people being young people. These inexplicably dour images, more black looking
than the blue of the title, appear in small groups at many of InSITE's venues; apparently
anywhere there was room for them.
San Diego has one of the highest ratios of golf courses to humans of any city in the
world. 
This fact seems to have inspired Thomas Glassford's "City of
Greens/Cuidad De Los Greens." Touched more by whimsy than by wisdom, the work offers
various interpretations of a putting-green motif, all of them prominently featuring the
fake plastic grass known as Astroturf.
These constructions appear at several of InSITE locations, where they might provoke a
smile and provide some welcome relief from the more weighty pieces with which they share
space.
This contribution of a sense of humor is the work's greatest contribution. Its refusal, or
inability, to deal with the issues of why and how this man-made greenery exists in the
middle of a nature-made desert is the work's greatest disappointment.