Like a caterpillar in a cocoon, changes may be occurring for a much-anticipated art project in Oviedo.
Still in its early stages, the proposed Wings of Joy sculpture in Solary Park — announced in June — has a potential alteration, initially revealed during the Oct. 19 Oviedo Public Arts Board meeting, that could help the project move ahead in its development.
Due to multiple factors, including a still-to-be determined budget and possible design concerns, the Diane Gillett Boswell sculpture, for which the original concept included four to five large butterflies with reflective bodies, may lose the butterflies’ bodies, leaving them with just the wings. Boswell, a photographer and artist, previously created the Tree Whisperers sculpture in Winter Park, which was unveiled in 2014.
The proposed Wings of Joy change could turn the sculpture into an interactive experience by allowing visitors to stand between the wings and become the butterflies’ bodies themselves, while lowering the cost and assuaging other concerns.
Oviedo’s Community Redevelopment Agency allots $25,000 for all city art projects, according to Lisa McDonald, Oviedo’s communications manager, but Oviedo’s development services director Teresa Correa said that the city and Boswell are still in the process of procuring estimates for the project. The figures they have received so far have come in higher than expected, Correa said.
In addition to the cost, the project’s complexity has played a part in the proposed changes.
“The [original design’s] main panel would be a photograph printed [on] metal,” Correa said. “The engineering to get everything together — each wing is a two-faced panel, [and] initially had the body. To get all of these things connected, and they are huge panels, it is a complicated matter.”
Before an official budget is determined for the project, the full design will need approval by the arts board, and an exact location in the park will need to be finalized. The budget is expected to come through the city’s public arts fund and the CRA.
City Manager Bryan Cobb also raised concerns that the reflective material that was originally discussed to make the bodies could have potentially caused a traffic hazard due to the glare.
“[The glare concern] is probably not a high probability, especially with windshield technology, but we wanted to make sure it was covered,” Cobb said.
To get ahead of these issues, the idea of removing the bodies became an appealing solution.
“It would be a little bit more abstract,” Correa said. “But still, if you have two wings together, it looks like a butterfly.”
