RDG Dahlquist Art Studio
Madison just dedicated its newest work of public art, a massive sculpture, “Both/And — Tolerance/Innovation,” which has been completed on lower State Street, adjacent to Library Mall.
The sculpture features a boulder leaning into a set of large stainless steel panels. Each leaf of steel features cutouts resembling waves of dappled shadow. Connecting and slicing through them is a cylinder the size and color of a pumpkin, its interior suggesting the sun. In fact, the work is oriented to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Between the panels, at their base, are LEDs, intended to transform the work at night into a glowing beacon.
“Both/And — Tolerance/Innovation,” is the creation of David Dahlquist and Matt Niebuhr of RDG Dahlquist Studio in Des Moines, Iowa. Dahlquist received his undergraduate degree in arts education from UW-Madison. His son and daughter are also alumni.
“Matt Niebuhr and I have been a public artist team for many years, and we work all over the country and in Canada,” says Dahlquist. “Matt is not only a visual artist; he is an architect, so our experience and expertise come together on projects like this.”
They faced an unusual constraint: building on a below-grade footing placed there for a different sculpture. It was the intended site of a huge, metal maple leaf, meant to sparkle at night with fairy lights. “THE LEAF” was commissioned from Jill Sebastian, a Milwaukee-based artist, in 2013. Ultimately, the cost of the sculpture exceeded the city’s budget.
“All indications were that this was the right work of art for the site,” Sebastian says in an email to Isthmus. “The concept was received with near unanimous delight at community meetings, review panels, consultations with neighboring entities and city/university agencies.” She says she worked with architects and engineers to create “a substantial custom base” for the work. After the first construction company failed to meet the city’s requirements for hiring minority employees, the city began looking for other fabricators as costs for stainless steel skyrocketed. “The city asked if I could simplify the design to cut costs,” adds Sebastian. “I said no for several reasons.” She believes “THE LEAF” was her best effort and noted that $20,000 had already been spent on the engineering plan alone.
“Sebastian is an important Wisconsin artist with deep roots to Madison, so it was very disappointing when we could not realize the ‘THE LEAF’ she designed with the budget we had available,” says Karin Wolf, city of Madison arts program administrator. “In 2013 and 2014 construction and material costs were climbing astronomically, and even after an increase in the budget available for Sebastian’s work, the prices we were quoted were cost-prohibitive.”
In short, the price of stainless steel went through the roof. “After several attempts, including
Goldie Bennett
“Both/And — Tolerance/Innovation” was designed by Matt Niebuhr and David Dahlquist, a UW-Madison alum.
different production methods and materials, we reluctantly had to go in a different direction,” says Wolf. She says the final cost for the new sculpture will be slightly under $220,000. Of that, $160,000 came from the budget for State Street Mall reconstruction and $60,000 is from the Madison Arts Commission’s Municipal Art Fund. The total is $70,000 less than the budget for Sebastian’s earlier proposal.
Sebastian says she was deeply conflicted about compromising with the city, in part because of former Mayor Soglin’s decision to remove “The Philosophers’ Grove,” a set of stone sculptures she designed for the space adjacent to the Wisconsin Historical Museum at the top of State Street. She says 34 of her sculptures were “irreparably damaged” when the art was removed in 2015, “which meant trashing $170,000 worth of taxpayer-funded art.” City officials were concerned that the $150,000 work encouraged loitering and a variety of social ills, including public intoxication, fighting, vandalism, drug dealing and assault.
Dahlquist says he and Niebuhr emphasize three things in all of their work: story, structure and site. The team spent a lot of time walking the site and photographing it from every perspective. From the top of the Mosse Humanities Building they observed the steady stream of students coming and going from classes, meeting people on their way up and down State Street. The concept of confluence became immediately clear.
“It is uniquely situated,” Dahlquist says of the sculpture, adding that the title is about accepting more than one idea, which is appropriate since the site is surrounded by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Memorial Library and three different churches. “It’s really, I think in some ways, what a university is about,” says Dahlquist. The sculpture is on city property, and not officially on campus.
Since 2013 the city and UW have been mulling changes for the adjacent Library Mall, between Memorial Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society headquarters, including perhaps the return of a familiar sight.
“We have had the Class of 1923 Clock Tower in storage since 2015 or so,” says Gary Brown, university director of campus planning and landscape architecture. The four-faced clock’s fate is “awaiting future planning for the redevelopment of Library Mall.”
