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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Clarksville

Weird art that can make you itch

The scenery outside Coeur d’Alene’s Wastewater Treatment Plant has the makings for a 1950s horror movie.

“Attack of the Giant Round Worms,” you might call it.

Or –

“Killer Microbes from Space.”

But no, it’s just a bizarre public art project that consists of seven sculptures of creatures you might find in your flush water or a city council meeting.

Things, for example, like ciliates both “free swimming” and “crawling.”

Yuck.

“I am a protozoa, a single-celled microorganism, covered in hair-like organelles called cilia,” reads the sign outside the free-swimming ciliate sculpture.

Made from welded steel, the beasties were commissioned in 2011 by members of the Coeur d’Alene Arts Commission, who presumably weren’t high at the time. Dedication took place July 17, 2012.

The artist, Allen Dodge, dubbed his work, “The Cleaning Crew.”

According to the wastewater website, the art was “designed to bring forward and support the important functions of the Wastewater Treatment Plant facility and highlight the City’s natural environment and relationship with its precious resources.”

Plus make you itch like hell.

I’d write more, but I think I’ll go take a shower now.



Thoughts and ruminations from S-R columnist Doug Clark