Unique Sacramento Public Art You Walk By and Never Notice

Poseidon in bronze is a gift to the city of Sacramento from the Greece.

Scurrying along the sidewalks and streets of Sacramento, we can pass by Sacramento public art without so much as an upward glance when we’re in a rush. And we are always in a hurry, it seems. Information comes at us from everywhere. My cellphone dings with emails, tinkles with text, jingles with a phone call; my husband’s voice informs me the Trump protestors on the corner of 14th and L Streets are on break; we’re watching out for cars that might hit us in the crosswalk, plus I’m tallying the $5 million I’ll sue for when they run over my husband, and trying to clutch my jacket closed as we scurry along in the rain.

We just don’t notice Sacramento public art all of the time. It’s that thing that is there in the park. Several of them. But we walk by on the sidewalk that is not a sidewalk, according to the sign that has been defaced and forcibly squashed into an accordion, which serves it right. It is a sidewalk. You can cement your stupid poles at each end in the middle of the sidewalk to discourage passage, but it is a sidewalk. It’s still raining. We were on our way to the IMAX Theatre on Sunday to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on that super large screen that only IMAX can do.

Above is the bronze statue of Poseidon, which was a gift in 1972 to the city of Sacramento from the Greek government. Apparently it is a replica of a statue in the National Archeological Museum in Athens. Poseidon is the brother of Zeus and controls the sea while Zeus, in Greek mythology, rules the sky. The statue in the museum in Athens was originally discovered in 1926 at the bottom of the sea off of Cape Artemision. Nobody knows for certain whether it is Zeus or Poseidon — it depends on what is missing in his right hand. But many people seem to lean toward Poseidon.

Of interesting note is the controversy our Sacramento public art caused when a homeschooling convention of parents swooped into Sacramento in 2000 and objected to Poseidon’s nudity. City officials agreed to let the parents clothe the statue, which caused even more of an uproar. Why would visitors have more say over our Sacramento public art than its residents?

Homie, Walking the Dogs, by Gilbert Magu Luján, 2000

This next piece of Sacramento Public Art is called Homie, Walking the Dogs, which is acrylic paint over fiber / steel by the artist Gilbert Magu Luján (1940-2011). Luján was born in French Camp, near Stockton, and later moved to Los Angeles. He is a 1958 graduate of El Monte High School, and went on to several colleges, finally achieving his MFA in Sculpture in 1973 from the University of California at Irvine. It reminds me of nasty dogs in the California legislature.

Its bright yellow is hard to miss, yet we walk by. Teeth snarl through the lips and in the shoes. My husband remarked about its mean shoes, and he was still talking about the shoes when we stopped in front of the next piece of Sacramento public art. I saw an elephant, yet he was talking about mean shoes, which meant we engaged in two separate conversations the only way a long-term married couple can do without making any sense whatsoever, and it really doesn’t matter.

Genuine Void and Subtle Possession, 1998, by Taiwanese artist Jun Tsun-Tsun Lai.

This is a buddha that is missing its arms resting on a small elephant. The elephant’s trunk seems buried in the dirt. Why would a buddha sit on a baby elephant? The casting bronze seems to have been sculpted in Singapore and brought to Sacramento in 1998. The Taiwanese artist is Jun Tsun-Tsun Lai, born in 1953. It is called Genuine Void and Subtle Possession, and it seems to depict the ultimate Zen stage of Nirvana.

I read that some people find this Sacramento public art “too edgy,” but I see that edgy quality as its beauty, projecting simplicity and tranquility. Wherever you venture, there is controversy, people voicing opposing opinions, drumming up things to complain about. And it’s all there, sitting quietly, along that stretch between the Sacramento Convention Center and the IMAX Theatre, talking to you.

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