An Attempted Murder by Jack Champion now on display at City Hall
By MARRIE STONE
Photos by Jeff Rovner
Tom and Lucinda, a pair of 1,000-pound crows, landed on City Hall’s front lawn last week. They’re the latest temporary art installation funded by the lodging establishments of Laguna Beach. Entitled An Attempted Murder (because a murder of crows requires at least three), the birds first appeared at Burning Man in 2017 and at the Smithsonian Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 2018. The dedication took place last Friday, July 12, with artist Jack Champion on hand.
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Jack Champion poses between Tom (left) and Lucinda (right), the two 900-pound crows in his installation “An Attempted Murder”
Apart from providing perfect selfie backdrops and inspiring a few Hitchcock comments, An Attempted Murder might evoke some interesting conversations over the next several months. We’re living through fraught times. Though Tom and Lucinda don’t appear especially happy about it, they do look like they’re still talking (or at least squawking) to each other. Perhaps there’s a lesson in there.
“We’re looking for art that’s a little challenging, gets a conversation going and provides a way for people to engage that’s different from the normal day-to-day,” said Adam Schwerner, vice chair of the Arts Commission. “Art can do that. This piece – because of its scale, quality and the historical references it evokes with the crows – is the perfect installation for our town at this moment. It’s also fun.”
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(L-R) Laguna Beach Arts Commission members Carl Smith, Michael Ervin, Suzi Chauvel, Pat Kollenda, Adam Schwerner, Mayor Sue Kempf and Donna Ballard
The crows are first sculpted in clay. Then Champion creates a rubber mold and casts the birds in bronze. He named the pair Tom and Lucinda after music he was listening to at the time of their creation.
Champion enjoys the challenge of large-scale design. He also created two 31-foot-tall elephants with obelisks on their backs (an homage to Salvador Dalí) and a 20-foot-long cricket. No matter how big or tall the sculpture, Champion pays careful attention to small details, sculpting skin, feathers and wings to look life-like.
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Artist Jack Champion has shown the crows both at Burning Man and at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
For Champion, crows are a rare breed, and one he’s had an ongoing relationship with ever since he was a kid visiting his grandma, who had a resident crow. As an adult, the birds have followed his truck and staked out his home, waiting for Champion to feed them. But they bide their time, waiting until he leaves to swoop in for supper. “They’re so smart,” he said.
Champion also draws inspiration from Hieronymus Bosch, the early Dutch master and creator of The Garden of Earthly Delights (1515). Bosch’s surreal and fantastical worlds of exaggerated creatures and their outsized role might be one interesting lens through which to view An Attempted Murder. Stand beneath a 12-foot crow and experience how it feels when the natural world overwhelms us. It might change your perspective. By flipping the scale on size, Champion challenges us to imagine a different way of being in the world – an alternate universe where humans might not be in charge.
City Hall is the perfect setting for two birds seemingly engaged in endless argument. As Mayor Sue Kempf joked at the dedication ceremony, things are often more fun and civil outside the Council meeting room.
“They’re having a dialogue, for sure,” said Arts Commission member Suzi Chauvel. “That’s what I love about them.”
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Lucinda looks like she has more to say, making her an apropos addition to Laguna’s City Hall lawn
The city routinely works with Building 180 – an art production agency that curates complex installations – to bring these temporary art installations to town. According to Building 180’s mission statement, they “imagine a world where art connects us with one another, and the world around us. A world where art has no boundaries and is made to elevate the human experience, inspire the very best in human nature, and awaken the fullest potential of imagination.” Building 180 also brought Taylor Dean Harrison’s Polymery in March 2023 and Inquire Within by Joel Dean Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova last August.
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Whether Tom and Lucinda simply become another fun backdrop for your Instagram post, or a debate at your next dinner party, consider pausing for a moment to consider what they’re saying to you.
“I don’t want to bring politics into everything,” I said to Schwerner. “But it’s a charged moment we’re living through. They look like they’re having a hard conversation, and yet they’re still talking.”
“That’s a fair commentary,” he said. “There’s also something about crows and death. And it feels like we’re at the end of something, potentially, or maybe we’re just at the beginning. I guess we’ll find out.”
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Lucinda demands the mayor’s ear
An Attempted Murder is on display now at City Hall. The project is funded by the lodging establishments and the City of Laguna Beach. The city appreciates Building 180 for facilitating the installation of this project.
