Pittsboro’s Newest Artwork Provokes Public Debate; Reveals Conservative Attitudes
By Chase Miller
In the shadow of the historic Chatham County Courthouse, beside the roundabout which earned the “Circle City” its nickname, a newly installed piece of artwork stands tall. The sculpture is distinctive but unassuming: a cylindrical cage of 12-foot aluminum rods drilled into a 700-pound boulder, which is itself embedded in the brick lot beneath. Between the aluminum rods, a hanging steel pipe clatters in the slightest breeze like a lone, tuneless wind chime. The sculpture, entitled “Windstone,” was created by North Carolina native Phil Hathcock and sold to the town of Pittsboro for $5,300, a fiscal decision that has proven divisive amongst residents.
“Public art is not just decoration,” said Pittsboro Mayor Kyle Shipp, regarding the acquisition of the sculpture. “It’s an essential force in creating inclusive, vibrant communities.”
While the sculpture has certainly sparked an online conversation around public art, the general attitude is far from inclusive. The Town of Pittsboro Facebook page made a post to celebrate the installation, and commenters were quick to voice their dissenting opinions. One comment calls the sculpture “more trash on stick modern art” and another declares it would “bring more dollars at the scrap yard.”
Alongside the familiar critiques disparaging modern art as useless garbage, many responses are more overtly political. Some take issue with the use of government funds — “our tax dollars” — while others denounce the choice of artist, as Hathcock does not hail from Chatham’s “artist community.” The county has experienced an influx of rapid economic and population growth in recent years, most notably the continued construction of the Chatham Park mega-development in Pittsboro’s extra-territorial jurisdiction. The result is a town experiencing growing pains, where stubborn resistance to change has created mounting friction. The location of the sculpture is also a particularly sore spot, reigniting an older local debate regarding public art and cultural change.
“That little confederate soldier fellow that made all those folks so angry sure did look a lot better and actually belonged,” one comment reads, referring to the 27-foot tall Confederate monument which stood at the center of the downtown roundabout for over a century until its controversial removal in 2019. A host of others echo this sentiment: “No historical statues for Pittsboro, just cold, brutal, corporate contraptions devoid of any cultural connections to the past.”
While Hathcock’s artwork is definitively not a “corporate contraption,” it is difficult to refute the assertion that the sculpture bears no inherent connection to Chatham’s cultural past. But this longing for the past, and moreover the particular fixation on Confederacy as a twisted badge of Southern pride, reveals the reactionary ideology underpinning the online dogpiling. And, unsurprisingly, it has very little to do with art. In a community brimming with contempt for its own changing landscape, a simple disagreement about artistic merit serves as a mirror, reflecting the potent nostalgia for our reimagined history and wariness towards our uncertain future.
Featured image via Chase Miller.
Chase Miller is a freelance writer and creative living in Chatham County, North Carolina. He is fascinated by the intersection of art, politics, and culture in small-town America, which he hopes to capture in his work. He spends his days dreaming of other worlds (and sometimes creating them).
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