more images of Parking At the Courthouse |
Mike Mandel
Parking At the Courthouse, 2000
Ceramic Tile Mural
9.5' sloping to 15’ x 145’
Tampa Police Department Parking Garage (at intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Florida
Avenue)
Photo: Copyright 2000, Mike Mandel
This mural, centering on the history of this site, (the former site of the
Hillsborough County Courthouse) is comprised of 3 archival photographs which were
digitized/pixeled and then translated into tile. Adjacent to the mural are smaller
photographic images etched onto enamel plates depicting some of the historic changes to
the site from the years 1920-2000. |
Artist Concept
"In my work I am interested in engaging history, culture, myth,
geography, politics, and neighborhoods, and translating these
intertwined stories into a voice accessible to the community, in
attempting to realize this goal I tap into the power of documentary.
Photographs, artifacts, and people’s own words can be translated into
a public space to dramatically engage an audience with instances of
history and human experience. I feel permanent public works, like
architecture, become and integral part of our living environment and
prefer to think of mosaic walls as part of buildings, rather than an
add-on, for tile is an architectural medium. Parking at the Courthouse
connects together a variety of historical images central to the theme
(or function) and site (or location) of the Florida/Kennedy Parking
Garage. The garage replaced a surface parking lot. Many years prior to
that, the site was the location of the former Hillsborough County
Courthouse, a magnificent structure built in 1892 by J.A. Wood, the
architect of the Tampa Bay Hotel, now better known as the University
of Tampa. For this reason I chose to frame the imagery of the mural
with multiple arches that I photographed at the University while doing
project research. These same arabesque style arches appear throughout
the Courthouse in the windows and entrances. As the arches are framing
devices for the rest of the mural, the square columns of the building
that frame the walkway of the loggia area serve as framing devices as
well, when one looks at the artwork from across the street. The
central imagery of the mural is the Courthouse, one image emphasizes
the former great dome, and another image represents the inside of the
court room during the Key Club trial of 1927, documenting social
history of the time (possibly a case about liquor or gambling
violations during Prohibition). On either side of the Courthouse
images reference the automobile in different eras, a connection to the
function of the building as a parking garage. On the left, two police
officers stand at attention next to their late 50’s patrol car, again,
an homage to the fact that the primary clients of this structure will
be the police. And on the right, there is an arrangement of cars from
the 1920s parked at the Eli Witt Cigar Company, acknowledging one of
the major themes in Tampa’s history. "Hav-A-Tampa" not only beckons to
advertise the sale of cigars in a bygone era, but suggests that by
connecting with the imagery within the mural, one can accept and
invitation to reexperience the city. These images are experienced
architecturally, they are not framed on the wall, they have become the
wall." |
