Carolyn Fath
Jill Sebastian
Milwaukee artist Jill Sebastian was in Madison Tuesday morning to say goodbye to her art installation with a public lamentation among the homeless in Philosopher’s Grove.
Crews began work removing the granite and bronze stones arranged as a seating area at the intersection of State and Mifflin Streets on Monday at the order of Mayor Paul Soglin, who says the large numbers of homeless people who gather there during the day have created a public safety risk.
With yellow chalk, Sebastian etched outlines of the stones that had been removed and inscribed the remaining stones with quotes from Wisconsin writers. The sculpture’s original concept included permanent inscriptions, but fundraising to complete the piece never came together.
Carolyn Fath
Jill Sebastian
“I’m calling it State Street Stories: A Requiem," Sebastian says. “To me, in a sense, in saying farewell, I’m completing something that didn’t entirely happen.”
City officials could not immediately provide information on the sculpture’s original cost, as it was part of a larger streetscape project, but Sebastian says the creation and installation of the stones was about $150,000.
In the last several years, more than $50,000 of public and private funds have been spent on improving conditions at the top of State Street, including activities programming, cleanup and maintenance work, light installation and the removal of 11 stones from Philosopher’s Grove.
City planner Rebecca Cnare says it cost “a little over $2,000” to remove 11 stones that were taken out earlier this summer, which was about a fourth of the entire piece.
City officials have said they plan to work with Sebastian to relocate the stones elsewhere in the city, but the artist says moving the installation would destroy the spirit of the piece, which was designed to “capture the rhythm” between the Capitol and the University of Wisconsin and symbolize the Wisconsin Idea.
“When they remove it,” she says, “it will no longer do that.”
