The Audience by Michael Snow

         Whenever I see Michael Snow’s public sculpture,  “The Audience", over the entrance to the  Rogers Center, home of the local baseball franchise,  I can’t help asking, “ How did he get away with it?” I think of Goya’s “ Portrait  of  Carlos IV and His Family”, wherein  the Spanish artist  reveals the vulgarity, venality and sheer vacuity of his regal sitters. Of course Snow doesn't depict particular individuals.

     Actually, his figures resemble cartoon stereotypes.  Eight of them represent  different  sports  fans.  They are utterly crass, with the possible exception of the Clark Kent type, itself another ludicrous stylization. Yet these grotesques are amusing, too. They simultaneously represent  and observe the fans entering the stadium, using the same gestures  the fans will shortly employ watching the game, and are already  using mentally as they regard the sculpture; a thumbs down, a v for victory, another(me?) taking a photograph, and so on. This is an artwork which evokes sound: hoots, cheers,  groans, etc.

         

  In contrast to the one-dimensional  cartoon personalities, the complex  group has been executed massively in the round. The artist amplified their monumental three-dimensionality  by compressing each form into  a crowded space that represents boxes in the stadium.  They look ready to burst out of their confines but this explosive energy is arrested within the sculpture.The contrast between the our memory of cartoon imagery and the illusion of a deep, crowded space; the difference between our memory of  bronze and coated fiberglass  generate visual interest and tension. 

      

 The figures are unified by a dull gold colour, suggestive  of money;  the vast  sums involved in the sports industry.  I can’t help comparing the staggering amount of money  and support  invested in sports with what’s invested  in  the  visual arts.

  Like Goya, Michael Snow tells it like it is.