Some Austinites are questioning a new display that’s popped up along a busy road.
It’s located at South Lamar Boulevard and Barton Skyway in South Austin and looks like construction barriers in the wrong place. However, it’s actually a public art display partially paid for by the City of Austin.
It’s called Barton Barriers.The artist says it’s designed it to look like an orange and white Stonehenge and he got the inspiration from the Gates project in the Central Park.
Sculptor Steve Dubov says he chipped in $10,000 of his own money and received state and federal grants as well as $4,300 from the city of Austin.
“Sculpture has the capacity to make you stop and see the world differently,” Dubov explains. “Making a work of art on this scale creates an experience of childlike wonder. There’s a dream-like quality to the proportions; all logic is discarded. I think this piece has a sweet, silly charm that will make people smile, the way Christo’s The Gates did. I’ve taken something that we normally see as a nuisance and given it a completely different meaning," Dubov said.
“I think it's an eyesore,” said Austinite Erika Wulff. “It seems completely out of place. It's not keeping Austin weird. I don't know I think it's ugly."
“I’ve seen more interesting things in the toilet,” said Austinite David Valenzuela. “I think it could have been put to a lot better use, a lot better use. That’s not $4,300 worth of plastic over there I don’t think.”
It took 58 people to put this together over the weekend and it will stay up until June 12th.
