A “rogue art installation” made of PVC tubes resembling a man with a cat on its shoulder sits on a boulder behind the Liberal Arts Campus’ M Building, overseeing a bed of rocks that serves as a reclaimed water site.
Public Art Advisory Group Chair and Art Gallery Manager Karla Aguiniga spoke with Viking News regarding public art pieces and how the PVC sculpture has never been officially recognized as belonging to anyone.
“Sometimes there’s assignments from classes that get installed somewhere unofficially until it gets some attention, you know like, ‘should this be moved? Is this someone’s art?’ And if it is someone’s art, let’s officially recognize it if we have this art. There’s a few pieces like that, and that piece is kind of a rogue art installation,” Aguiniga said.
Aguiniga first noticed the piece in September when checking in on an emergency box that was being painted in the area and speculated that the piece could’ve been made and placed by anyone, from an art student, nearby neighbor or an entirely random person.
“There’s a few professors that invite the students to put their sculpture around the real world, sort of have it live a different life outside the studio… I think that one is kind of like that, but it’s interesting because we were asking facilities if we could use (the bed of rocks) to put some art because it’s a really open space and it would be nice to put something there, and we were told we can’t really use that area because it’s a water reclaiming site… But someone saw an opportunity and did it, which is cool,” Aguiniga said.
A neighbor who lives across from the M Building claims to have noticed the PVC sculpture appear “about a year ago.”
The PVC sculpture’s only signs of age is the mouthpiece that has fallen between its legs, leaving behind a blue adhesive, and spiderwebs that bridge the limbs of the piece.
“We thought it was from the art department, you know how they put up random stuff around the college,” the neighbor said.
Club d’Art President Miya De Vera was asked if anyone in the club had mentioned the rogue installation, and said that she hadn’t seen the installation before.
“Most of us do ceramics and painting. Some of us are even art majors like myself, but I came last fall semester… But so far, I don’t know (anything regarding the installation). I see a lot of sculptures come and go throughout the semester, but I have not heard of this one,” De Vera said.
De Vera pointed Viking News to the art department’s Instructional Associate, Matthew Segotta, who said that the last time anyone mentioned PVC pipes in an installation was almost two years ago.
“It doesn’t look like a piece that was made on site here, never even seen it before. Very interesting to see art in an open space,” Segotta said.
After being shown a picture of the sculpture and given a rundown on the mystery of its creation, Segotta quoted British-Irish painter Francis Bacon, saying “the job of the artist is to always deepen the mystery.”
Aguiniga also explained that other rogue installations exist at LAC, such as the three at the southeast entrance of the K Building, two made of white clay and a wooden one that has lost its form over the years, and two metallic sculptures at the west side of the F Building she believes came from a welding class.
“We do have a full procedure on how to install public art on campus, but I think that there’s things that existed before then, that kind of show again the flaws in that. But (the PVC sculpture) also is kind of fun because there’s so many public sites on campus that whoever did that, knew that maybe, it wouldn’t be found,” Aguiniga said.
For now, the PVC man remains behind the M Building, with another boulder next to the piece for anyone who makes the rocky trek to sit alongside him.
The PVC sculpture looks over the bed of rocks behind the Liberal Arts Campus’ M Building on Oct. 7. A boulder next to the rogue sculpture provides a seat for anyone who wants to join the rock watching. (Rafael Gomez)
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