Q: What happened to the mural on the back of the west Dillons building? I always liked it and then one day it was just gone.
A: Right. Disappeared last month.
The upshot is that the landlord hired the artist to do the mural last October, and Dillons didn’t think what he produced was quite right, so they agreed to hit the reset button.
Dillons spokeswoman Sheila Regehr said the mural “wasn’t representative” of what the company wants to portray, including food and family and inclusion. But she said that Dillons agreed to keep it in place for several months to honor the work that had been done and because the mural was intended to represent diversity and inclusion, which she said are core values to the company.
Fred Spille, who manages the Westloop property for Brixmoor, the company that owns it, said he was disappointed that the mural came down. He and Regehr both blamed miscommunication at the outset; Spille said Dillons wanted something more aligned with food, since it’s a grocery store.
The mural in question was created by Jeff Zimmerman of Chicago. It was an abstract bit, with a prominent rope tied into the shape of a heart, and cartoonish hands pointing in different directions. An explanation written by Zimmerman said the tied knot represented unity – two ropes (slightly differently colored) working together as one unit. The imagery in the work is intended to be puzzling, he said. “We aren’t creating a billboard, but an image that will always present the public with some mystery, and therefore always keep them looking and wondering.”
The carton hands “keep us from getting too serious. They are fun,” he wrote. “Also, we see that they are pointing in different directions. Up or down? Left or right?”
“In the end,” he wrote, “it’s very simple. Unity.”
Didn’t work out that way. Regehr said Dillons got lots of questions about the mural’s intended meaning, and also became concerned that it created a traffic hazard for people driving by on Seth Child Road, gawking. And the back of the building is not a great place for people to stand there contemplating it, since that’s where delivery trucks go. Lease terms give Dillons the final say, so that was eventually that.
Which means another mural there is unlikely. Still, Regehr and Spille said that they want to have more public events involving art in Westloop, including the possibility of art made by local kids. Regehr mentioned involving the Flinthills Breadbasket, to tie in with the food theme. They’re looking to get something going this fall, once the weather cools off.
Spille said because of Westloop’s big islands and because of Manhattan’s recent move to have so much more public art, he wants to go in that direction, noting that he’s spent $200,000 just on landscaping there.
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