Too often, public works of art have a polarizing effect: either you love it, you hate it, or you are indifferent. In San Diego, public works of art often become controversial, primarily because many proposed works that could elevate the city’s desire to project a sophisticated image collide with the reality that we are still a provincial city and unsophisticated at heart. .
Which is very bad. Now, I’m not saying I’m a nondiscriminatory advocate for all avant-garde public art (did anyone really like that mob-shaped sculpture in front of the Scripps Clinic on North Torrey Pines Road?), But how many bronze sailboats? and jumping dolphins do we need? Let’s challenge ourselves a bit. But I seriously doubt that the wonderful Chicago painted cow sculptures (or Seattle painted pigs) would have flown here in San Diego if we had first approached the concept.
Hell, we’d probably turn down a request from Christo to cover the Coronado Bridge with fabric.
So we are often left with little works of art to discover and admire, rather than big statements. And that’s fine, as long as they’re as smart as the one you’ll find on the 25th Street Bridge spanning the Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway (State Route 94) that links the neighborhoods of Golden Hill to the north and Sherman Heights to the south.
In reality, the artwork is not so much the bridge itself as the railing that separates the sidewalk from traffic on the west side of the bridge. Artist Roman de Salvo had the idea of creating a “song lane” – a carillon, which is a series of chromatic bells that sounds a melody when played in sequence. If you’ve ever run a stick along a fence while walking, then you’ll get the idea.
So, in essence, de Salvo has created a work of art that is not only functional but also beautiful, a fusion of safety and music in a unique way, and serves as a symbolic gesture of uniting the two neighborhoods of Golden Hill and Sherman Alturas. The song’s song is called “Crab Chime,” and it was written solely for the project by SDSU music instructor Joseph Waters, and it sounds the same whether you walk in either direction.
The Golden Hill Community Development Corporation received a $ 200,000 grant from SANDAG for pedestrian safety improvements and obtained a $ 39,000 grant from the City of San Diego Arts and Culture program for the song lane. So sometimes public art doesn’t have to be grand or weird to impress the public. And the musical bridge on 25th Street is a perfect example.
So the next time you’re speeding up King Freeway in or out of downtown, take a look at the 25th Street Bridge and know there’s a little gem hidden in the structure. And maybe he’ll take the time to get off the highway and cross the bridge to the tune of the “Carillon Crab.”
Hidden San Diego is a series of articles about cool and unique things that are not generally known about San Diego.
