And here’s another multi-parter, after I just posted about how I don’t want to do much of that. But the outdoor art at The Packing Plant gallery comes in two very different flavors – a striking mural, and an equally striking prism sculpture. Here, in Part 1, the mural. This is a work by the Australian artist Tyrone Wright, who goes by Rone, who I first featured in Forget the past. (His art is easier to view on his Instagram page.) This mural, featuring an Australian model, (large faces of women is characteristic of Rone’s work) was sponsored by Vince Herrera of Trespass Gallery in Clarksville. Trespass is no more. You can see in photos of the mural taken shortly after it went in in 2014, that it has been altered, apparently as a result of the arrival of Watkins Gallery at the site, and that the reference to Trespass Gallery has been removed. Art is ephemeral – outdoor art is doubly, triply so.
Located at 507 Hagen Street. The mural faces Gray Street. There is parking on site, and at some nearby businesses. Check out the galleries, and enjoy the art!
July 3, 2018 at 9:51 am
Love your website and thank you for the interest in my building. I love the write up here and wanted to add some primary source material for posterity’s sake if that’s cool.
Watkins moving their student run gallery was not responsible for removing the Trespass Gallery branding. I painted over it myself because it was not supposed to be there and was not included in the cool design proof Rone provided after our prelim meeting.
Vince seemed like a real nice guy. Personally I was contacted by an old friend who works for Manuel Zeitlin who passed my info on to Lain York at Zeitgeist. All great people doing good things.
It was def a hotass day the day Rone did his thing. Vince helped liaison. But We didn’t have any discussion about putting the name of his gallery on the mural. Vince and his wife had recently moved from Miami where they had done all sorts of work in the art world they reminded me. They had moved to Clarksville recently (don’t remember why) where they opened their gallery (don’t remember why in Clarksville either unfortunately). Anywho, he never made any mention of putting the name of his Clarksville based gallery in the mural. His liaison work seemed more of a personal passion and less of a commercial opportunity in our discussions.
I happened to show up after work right around the time Rone was wrapping up and stood under the shade of a silver maple across the street with Vince, while Rone started to clean up. Last thing to do was throw his signature and date it. Then he stepped back admired a job well done and joined us in the shade for perspective. It was at this time that Vince whispered something in his ear and he stepped back over to the piece and wrote in Trespass’ branding.
To me the piece was better without the advertisement from an aesthetic viewpoint. As the owner who approved the original proof, I wasn’t expecting the last minute addition and didn’t feel it was appropriate, since it was not part of any previous convo.
I figured I’d take the time to share my experience because sometimes a little more complete of a description can help provide a better story. And to ensure that Watkins doesn’t get the blame/credit for removing the commercial branding from the mural.
July 3, 2018 at 12:39 pm
Thanks for the info. I’m not sure why I wrote what I did, when I think I had in mind more what happened to the door and window to alter the mural. No matter – outdoor art more than any art depends on the needs of the owner, and changes or dissapears as the owner’s needs change.
July 6, 2018 at 3:50 pm
Hey Theron,
oh ok. I gotcha. also good points. When we did our prelim walk-thru and discussed layout of the image on the wall, Rone was made aware that new windows would be added: one directly to the right of the door-looking at it from streetview- and a larger portrait window into the space (closer to where the texture of the block changes). I didnt have the specs on it at the time but its general location was considered by him in how to orient her face on the wall. Another point of discussion was that I thought at the time that I would end up replacing that metal door with something that let more light in but that didnt end up happening- he knew that as well and tried to limit his work on teh door to a few strands of her hair. He also knew that I would be trimming out the door with white dibond strips. I offered to install them before he painted so he could paint them gray also, but (lucky for me and the intent of the piece) his works tend to take a life of their own by maturing with the space and aging in place come what may. The ‘washed-out’ look was there from the start as you probably know and is part of his style.
The square right next to the door took more out of her cheek than I thought (once the ACM trim was added), so that I agree was a bummer, but an expected one. As far as the larger portrait window it ended up only affecting about a small length of hair and the trim ended up covering up more than was cutout for the window.
So, I get your point. its not optimal but most of these issues were a known variable at the time of the layout of her face by Rone in his initial design concept. What was completely unknown were penetrations for MEP (mech, elect, plumbing): in this instance, one junction box up high (I asked electricians to use gray and metal so as to hide it as much as possible), and one condensate drain line at the bottom of the image near her mouth. The HVAC guys were cool in actually trying to move it away from her face as much as possible. While the PVC was originally white, I painted it gray to try and hide it.
After all the work was done to the wall as part of the buildout my neighbors applied a UV protectant over it since they owed me a favor. It was flaking off more than I thought it would but not quite sure if that product has slowed that flaking. They owed me a favor because I made them a sign for their business years ago.
So, I agree thats its not exactly as he left it and some unexpected coverage occurred but we have gone through great pains to honor the intention of it, even on the front end in the layout phase to predict the impact of future construction. Rone seemed cool about lettign it be a product of its environment as much as helping to create the environment I would love to hear from other people what they have done to protect outdoor murals. In this case its gets quite the beating on a south-facing wall right by the street with no shrubbery.