Artist Seeks Restraining Order to Prevent Land Artwork’s Demolition

New York-based artist Mary Miss has filed a legal complaint against the Des Moines Art Center (DMAC) in Iowa, which announced plans to begin demolishing her land art installation “Greenwood Pond: Double Site” (1996) in the next week. Seeking a temporary restraining order to preserve the work, Miss alleges that the Center both failed to consult her before determining that the installation wasn’t salvageable and allowed the work to deteriorate by not providing adequate care throughout its existence.

Things came to a head last October, when the Center restricted access to areas of the installation in order to conduct “a complete structural review” of the site, which had been degrading over time. Miss was made aware of the closure and review, but was not invited to participate. She connected with DMAC Director Kelly Baum via Zoom about the work and its importance to her artistic career weeks later, and was met with a shock in December when Baum sent her a letter regarding the Center’s decision to demolish the installation entirely.

Baum blamed the “ephemeral” nature of Miss’s installation, which consists of various wooden, metallic, and concrete landscape features that provided different perspectives of the pondside ecology, as well as Iowa’s harsh climate, for the deterioration of the work. She also said that it was not financially feasible to restore the work and that DMAC had put considerable funds toward its maintenance.

The artist went public with Baum’s letter in January through the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), prompting the Center to issue a statement reiterating that the decision was a matter of “public safety.” Miss alleged that DMAC was violating its contract with her that included a pledge to “reasonably protect and maintain the Project against the ravages of time, vandalism and the elements,” and failed to include her in the decision-making process for deaccessioning the work.

Since then, Miss has rallied immense support from dozens of artists and art administrators who have recognized “Greenwood Pond: Double Site” as a seminal work in the artist’s career and in the realm of Land Art.

On April 3, the Center issued its notice that demolition was slated to begin “on or around April 8,” and that the pond and its aquatic life would be drained into the nearby river so that parts of the installation could be removed.

Miss filed her legal complaint on April 4 in an effort to prevent the deaccessioning of her installation, officially alleging that the Center is violating its contract with her and breaching the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) through the forthcoming “destruction of a work of recognized stature, and any intentional or grossly negligent destruction of that work.” Miss is seeking monetary damages from the center over the alleged VARA violation.

The Des Moines Art Center referred Hyperallergic to its previous statements when asked for a comment regarding the complaint.

The artist stated that this issue was forced into the courts due to “the Art Center Board and Director’s lack of consultation, disregard of their contractual obligations, and shameful treatment of the artwork.”

“They have only themselves to blame for this avoidable scandal,” she said.

Related