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One of the newest Art In Public Places pieces in the Village of Palmetto Bay is a sculpture created by local artist Xavier Cortada, titled “Flower Force,” and installed at the traffic circle at SW 168th Street and 82nd Avenue.
What makes this striking sculpture unique is that it is part of a large scale community awareness project that the artist hopes will encourage residents to get more involved in the fight to protect the natural habitat of South Florida and beyond.
The sculpture will be dedicated formally on Sunday, Oct. 10, at 2 p.m. The first 200 registered Palmetto Bay households will receive a free hand-painted ceramic flower sculpture and a live wildflower plant to participate in Cortada’s eco-art reforestation effort to protect local pollinators and habitats.
Cortada is a recognized and accomplished artist whose work has been exhibited in more than 100 places around the country and the world. He also is a dedicated environmental activist deeply concerned about the natural world he loves and its future.
The clay pieces that make up the sculpture had to air dry for three weeks, then were fired in a kiln at 1,800 degrees. They had to cool for several days, then were glazed and fired again. Even assembling the sculpture took time.
“It’s a tedious process,” Cortada said. “And the flowers weren’t just going to be mounted on a flat wall, they were going on the curved surface of the orb. And I wanted the colors to give a gradient effect across the orb, from darker to lighter, so that took some testing to get it the way I wanted.”
Cortada said that he wants to create an awareness about who we are as stewards of this planet.
“We live in the here and now. It’s very hard for us to visualize what was. Our manicured lawns and landscapes once were wilderness. It’s hard for us to connect with our history.
That wouldn’t be so tragic if the future consequences weren’t so dire, especially for Miami.
As an artist, it’s my responsibility to try to create a piece that harkened to that moment. When creating art I look at the site specificity.”
The location of the traffic circle leads right into the entrance of the Deering Estate. Cortada points out that Palmetto Bay is also one of the historical locations of the Tequesta Indians.
“That traffic circle, where people drive past to go to work or school every day, used to be the hunting ground of these indigenous people before Ponce De Leon sailed by, going down the coast of Florida.”
He delineated how the growth, Flagler’s railroad, canals and roads, draining the Everglades, urban and suburban sprawl, all changed the normal ecosystems of the area. Though he lives in one of those suburban areas, he tried to make a difference.
“I’m not attacking our lifestyle,” Cortada said. “I’m just wanting us to be aware of what actions we need to take today to better coexist with nature. The first thing I did when I moved here five years ago was I planted native trees galore, all over my yard. And I saw the transformation. I saw how ecology happens when the birds have a diversity of seeds to eat.”
He hopes that the Flower Force project, getting people to plant wildflowers, will help the pollinators. It’s a “baby step,” but an important one. He’s concerned about the worsening impact of climate change — hotter weather, stronger storms, flooding — as well as salt water intrusion into the aquifer, and pesticide and fertilizer runoff into the canals that ends up in the bay.
“To me this sculpture was so important because it connects the past with the future by putting a pin in the present, and that pin is this sphere right at the hunting grounds, right at the intersection of this beautiful green verdant suburb, but one that needs to have a better understanding of its historic treasures. That’s why this sculpture couldn’t just stand as a monolith to itself, it had to be the epicenter of a process that invited other people to take a little piece of it and bring it to their homes.”
A reception will take place Oct. 10, 3:30 p.m., at the Coral Reef Park East Side Gazebo. To register for the project or for additional information visit: https://cortada.com/art2012/flowerforce/publicart/palmetto-bay/.
