With their hooves anchored to the ground at various locations in downtown Reno and Sparks, Artown’s 25 colorful bighorn sheep seem like a pretty placid lot. But these life-size animal sculptures, funded by local organizations and adorned by Nevada artists for Artown’s community-wide Counting Sheep show, have been stirring up some verbose displays of backtalk. Seems that no species of Nevada wildlife—be it symbolic or otherwise—can roam (or in this case, stand) un-politicized.
Last weekend, the sheep were outfitted with what Artown executive director Karen Craig calls “giant earrings.” A lavishly written essay, divided between two pages, hung from each ear of most of the 25 rams. It’s opening: “There is something offensive about these sheep.”
Artown officials saw to the swift removal of the sheep’s earwear, so few were privy to the words of protest. Monday morning, however, an individual going by the name of “Elias Artista” e-mailed the same essay to the RN&R.
“Who is daring to call this art?” questions the writer. “The expanses and wonders of the arts crowded into our distant yesterdays should not have to suffer under the same designation as the juvenile, banal, self-serving wrecks displayed here. … These sheep are just one example of the folly and boredom displayed by the simple, the opportunistic, the unskilled.
“We are the same species that built the pyramids, discerned the motion of the heavens, created music, assembled paint into illusions of life and stone into the form of man. In former times, we created miracles and wonders. Now we paint sheep for casinos and phone companies.”
Elias Artista’s intent was clearly to provoke thought, not damage the rams. When I e-mailed Artista back to ask for comment on the tagging, I received a reply stating, “I certainly hope no sheep were damaged. That was not our intention. Interestingly, we did see several people hanging on them, and kids riding on them … but as we found while hanging the pamphlets, people are not interested in much.”
Craig, however, is interested—and she’s not discounting the words of the manifesto-distributor.
“There are really good elements of this,” she says of the writing, adding that it’s been written by someone who loves beautiful art.
And as for the dissidents’ objection to sponsored art?
“It’s a fair comment,” she says. Nevertheless, she says that Artista’s contention that good art is pure art, unblemished by selection committees and corporate dollars, has no basis in history. Craig notes that patrons funded many of the world’s most beloved works of art, from the Sistine Chapel to Handel’s Messiah. Art, she says, has always had a highly political element.
And as for the talk of pyramids, Craig points out that it took slaves to get them made.
“The ideal always sounds beautiful,” she says. “It’s never been that way.”
Craig says that there has been, and will continue to be, some concern for the safety of the rams. There was an attempted theft made on one of the sheep its first night outside, but she says most of the real damage to the sheep has occurred from sunlight.
“I think we were concerned, but not petrified,” she says, adding that when you have a whole herd of artworks, people are generally respectful. Mostly, she says, Counting Sheep is about community enjoyment, and particularly kids’ delight in the sheep. It’s not about pristine artwork.
Yet Artista and cohorts, even for a brief span, dangled a worthwhile question from the rams’ ears: “Where,” they asked, “is the amazing art, Artown?”
Craig responds simply: “It’s just a temporary public art exhibit. Everybody defines what’s cool for them[selves].”