'Sebastopol Spire' installed in meadow near the laguna

The kinetic sculpture, a 28-foot tower with a surface that responds to the wind, has been in the works for eight years

Sebastopol Spire by artist Ned Kahn was installed in a city-owned lot next to the laguna last Thursday. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

Some things are worth waiting for. Artist Ned Kahn’s ‘Sebastopol Spire’ is one of those. After eight years of bureaucratic wrangling, Sebastopol Spire was installed in a city-owned meadow next to the laguna last Thursday, Sept. 19.

The 28-foot-tall structure is constructed of stainless steel and covered with polycarbonate tabs that move when the wind blows.

“For decades, I’ve been intrigued with this idea of dissolving the boundaries of sculpture,” Kahn said. “I mean, most traditional sculpture, it’s metal or stone, and the boundary between the artwork and the environment is very defined. I’ve been intrigued with exploring the opposite of that—like, how can you make a sculpture that’s permeated by the atmosphere, permeated by nature, so that the boundary is this constantly morphing, changing surface.”

“When you look at anything in nature closely enough, everything has kind of a granular texture to it—a morphing, changing, granular texture,” he said. “If you look at the surface of molecules and atoms and cells in our bodies and all sorts of living creatures, their boundaries are very porous and intermingle with the environment. I’ve been intrigued with making sculptures on a macro scale that we can see that are reflective of the basic physics and biophysics of the universe.”

The moving pieces on the sculpture are made from a bio-plastic. “It’s a polycarbonate that was created from living plants rather than fossil fuels,” Kahn said.

The Sebastopol Spire project started eight years ago, when the Public Arts Committee of Sebastopol held a competition for a sculpture to grace the eastern entrance of Sebastopol on Highway 12.

Kahn won the competition with a different sculptural concept—another moving wind sculpture that was going to be installed on the Highway 12 bridge—but Caltrans vetoed it.

“We presented it to Caltrans, and they said, well, one of our rules is it can’t have any moving parts. So we fought with them for a year and a half, giving them data to show that the thing is totally safe, but they wouldn’t budge from their rules,” Kahn said.

“It took eight years to navigate the minefield of Caltrans, Open Space and the City of Sebastopol hoops, but we got to the finish line,” he said. “We had to get the sculpture in before October because of rules about bird migration.”

Sebastopol Spire is now located in a small meadow, set back from Hwy. 12, behind the Welcome to Sebastopol sign at the eastern entrance to town. It is barely visible from the road.

“Basically, we ended up finding this little meadow, which is outside of Caltrans’ right of way,” Kahn said. “It belongs to the city of Sebastopol. The piece was originally intended as kind of a gateway into Sebastopol, but instead, it’s in this beautiful little meadow, and I actually think it’s a better place because it’s kind of beautiful there. You’re far enough away from the highway that it actually feels like a real place.”

Kahn also donated and craned in a giant curving log as a bench to sit and observe the sculpture.

“I told the city that I wanted to have a bench to encourage people to hang out there and watch because it is kind of a mesmerizing thing,” Kahn said. “Once you start watching it, you want to be comfortable and watch it for a while.”

Rather than being a gateway to the city, Sebastopol Spire will eventually be a gateway to the series of trails running on city property along the laguna. Public works director Dante Del Prete said that the AmeriCorps Trail, which is expected to be finished this year, will connect to the meadow where the Sebastopol Spire is located.

The sculpture is a gift of sorts from the artist to Sebastopol. The city paid Kahn $44,000 from the Public Arts budget, but the sculpture ultimately cost about $200,000 to create and install. The original $44,000 didn’t come from the city’s General Fund, but from a special public arts fee that developers pay when they build in Sebastopol. This one came from the public arts fee paid by the Barlow during its construction.

How to see the sculpture

Park on Morris Street near Highway 12, and walk around the corner and down the block to the ‘Welcome to Sebastopol’ sign just this side of the Highway 12 bridge over the laguna. Sebastopol Spire is located in the oak-dotted meadow behind the sign. Choose a windy day for the full effect.