The Department of Art removed an anonymous sculpture of a ballot box from a Fine Arts Building elevator on Monday afternoon after occupants used an attached permanent marker to scrawl graffiti on elevator walls.
"I was very tempted to leave it there," said School of Art Director John Reed.
He was contacted about the sculpture around 2 p.m. Monday. Reed recalled curiosity about the response to the installation piece, but as maintainer of the building he could not justify using student fees to clean up graffiti created by elevator occupants scrawling on the walls with an attached permanent marker.
Reed said that had the artists requested permission to erect the sculpture, he would have requested they use a washable watercolor marker instead of a permanent marker. He also cited concerns about the black curtain attached to the elevator ceiling that obscured half the elevator.
"That might have scared people," he said.
The anonymous and untitled ballot box was discovered Monday morning in elevator 2. The three-foot tall sculpture was constructed from several spray-painted scrap pieces of wood, with heavy chains wrapped around the top of the box and a lock.
A black permanent marker was attached to the box, along with a sign instructing students to write down their secrets. A four-inch slit cut in the top of the box would have allowed students to insert pieces of paper, although no paper was provided and no written secrets were found inside the box after its removal.
A black shower curtain, which hung from the ceiling, obscured the box while a red plastic sheet attached to the ceiling cast the stall in a red glow. A mirror lay next to it, with marker-written comments including "this is a failed attempt at something meaningful."
The box and the curtain occupied half of the elevator’s space.
Painting and drawing sophomore Jade Nguyen said she fit herself and five friends into the stall beside the sculpture.
Two maintenance men removed the sculpture from the elevator between 1:50 and 2 p.m. Monday afternoon.
Sculpture graduate student David Graeve speculated that the piece commented on the national elections.
"It’ll be interesting to see who unlocks it," said Graeve on the ballot box’s lock as he studied the remains of the removed sculpture on Monday evening.
Other examples of guerilla artwork present in the building include masking tape crime scene outlines on the first floor’s garden and paintings of shadows on the fourth floor.
"If it’s not bothering anybody, we try to take the most liberal attitudes we can," said Reed on guerilla artwork’s presence in the Fine Arts Building.
Photography graduate student Michael Brims cited a need for "mutual respect" between artists and building maintenance crew.
"They should respect the building, and maintenance should have more understanding," Brims said.
Sculpture senior Jeremy Haines said students should have expected removal of the artwork.
"You put up guerilla art with the expectation that it’ll be taken down," Haines said.
