Malecon public sculpture
winter-spring/2001

Wonder why people are pondering, peering and posing on the Malecón lately? They’ve been swept up by the surge of fantastical sculptures flowing northward.
Since our town’s been visually enhanced, we’ve honed our communication skills. Until some years ago, a breezy “Meet you at the sculpture at nine” was a perfectly acceptable rendezvous arrangement, The Seahorse being the only sculpture the Malecon had. Today’s creative climate requires rigor: “See you at the, um, at the ears at 7,” or “Be on the chair with the big nose at 8.However, “Turn left at the guy pointing his finger” could one day prove a vital directive keeping you on track. And since most of these action markers are at intersections, they uncannily keep reappearing from multiple perspectives.
The Arches lead this playful phenomenon at the Malecon’s south end.Widely recognized since few tourists return home without a picture of themselves under them, they’re actually an architectural detail rather than a sculpture. Salvaged from a Guadalajara hacienda then situated across from the main plaza and city hall, they’re an integral part of the Malecon and an obvious landmark.
The Friendship Fountain was a gift to Vallarta from Sister City Santa Barbara in 1987. Its design grew out of a legend told by the California city’s original inhabitants, the Chumash Indians:
The Earth Mother saw that the number of her children on the island had grown too great, so she created a rainbow bridge for them to cross the water to the mainland. She told them not to look down or they might fall into the water. Some looked and fell, so to keep them from drowning she turned them into dolphins.
The word for dolphin in the language of the Chumash means to protect, to go in peace. Actor Timothy Bottoms’ father, sculptor Bud Bottoms, masterfully extends this sentiment with his intertwined leaping dolphins inaugurated in 1987. Cast here, the dolphins were poured in three or four sections, each fired at slightly different temperatures. Subtle tone variations resulted, so a hot acid bath gave it a rich green patina. Plaques commemorating Vallarta’s relationships with other sister cities including San Tropez, France and San Jose, Costa Rica surround it.
Neptune and the Nereid is the expression of Italian C. Espino. The sea nymph and the Roman god of the sea have frolicked on the Malecon since 1990. A Nereid is a mythical sea creature personifying the waves of the Mediterranean. The trident Neptune originally held has been removed for restoration.
The Seahorse by Rafael Zamarripa has a somewhat turbulent history. While the statue you see on the Malecon has stood firmly for 25 years, eight years prior to its installation an identical twin was inaugurated at the south end of Los Muertos Beach. The combination of people climbing on it, high waves and strong winds eventually knocked it over, Then it went missing for a long time prior to reappearing at its original site.
When In Search of The Reason was installed in 1999, citizens were so concerned that its considerable height presented a potential danger to children who might climb it, they marched on city hall. Now a couple of years have gone by and many of these same people recognize the speculation it invokes and the interaction it invites. Still a hot topic around town, some say Sergio Bustamente’s whimsical creatures are Jedis or Ewoks a la Star Wars; others that they’re flying Pillow People. What do you think? And, after all, isn’t that a primary function of art?
The Rotunda on the Sea’s position at the beginning of Allende, Vallarta´s longest street up the hill from the Pacific, is its privilege and its problem. During the summer, torrential rains sweep mud and rock trajectories along that very path, water levels rising to as high as a foot and a half. So during the 1997 installation of Alejandro Colunga’s eclectic 16-piece ensemble, a large drainage pipe was laid under it. Merging utility with fantasy, the magical-realist’s figures are the first thing he sees when he steps out of his Vallarta house. And his original five-piece installation in Mexico’s second largest museum has good company: the famous murals and frescoes of Jose Clemente Orozco. Guadalajara’s Hospicio Cultural Cabañas hosts Colunga’s visionary imagination in the form of fantasy chair people surrounding a table with arms and legs and fantasy foods cast into it. Since then several other pieces have been added. His current project is sculpting folkloric images of Cuba’s original residents be installed in Havana.
Nature as Mother by Tapatío Adrian Reynoso is a unique combination of bronze and experimental polymer resins. Life and death’s cyclical nature is succinctly represented by his spiraling wave on a snail. His work is being included in a large new sculpture garden in Sweden, along with that of Colunga, Columbian Fernando Botero, and other famous Latin American and European sculptors.
La Nostalgia’s lap is worn shiny from the myriad couples whose shorts have sanded it down as their pictures were taken on it since 1984. Sculptor Ramiz Barquet has the most public art in the city, his own love story inspiring these smooth bronze figures. After finding the woman he loved, then losing track of her for 27 years, in a twist of fate they reunited and married 29 years ago. This is the spot where the lovers sat gazing at God’s handiwork and talking of their ‘almost life’ together. When he proposed, he determined that if she said yes, one day he would create a tribute to their love for all the world to see. With stories like this (Remember Liz and Richard?), Vallarta has evolved into a leading destination for weddings. And along with the Guadalupe Church crown, this sculpture has become the most important visual symbol of Vallarta.
Undoubtedly more sculptures will surface onVallarta’s visual landscape, already privileged with more public art than any other Mexican city of this size.Watch for one by Mathis Lidice at the north end of the Malecon across from the Hotel Rosita.
Thanks to Carlos Munguía, Puerto Vallarta historian, and Gary Thompson of Gallery Pacifico for their assistance with this article.If you’d like to know more about monumental public art, Gallery Pacifico leads an Artist Studio Walking Tour every Tuesday at 10 a.m. until early April. Watch artist-in-action Meridy Volz over coffee and pastries at the gallery, then stroll to the studios of Ramiz Barquet and Richard Baker, discovering more public art en route.