LYON TWP. — John Sauve believes art is meant to spark conversation, and one of the artist’s pieces in the township is certainly doing that now, but for reasons he never expected.
“Man in the City,” Sauve’s orange, 20-foot-tall, 1,500-pound metal sculpture — a silhouette of a man with a fedora that has stood on a hilltop in Atchison Park — has been removed at the direction of township officials. It was visible to Interstate 96 motorists for the past 13 years.
“Someone went and cut it down thinking no one would notice,” Sauve, 61, a Brighton resident, said. “No one called me, they just took a saw and cut it down…They sent me a letter and said, ‘Get your shit out by next week.’ I have to come up with a solution between now and next Wednesday, or their solution is to cut it into pieces. That doesn’t say kumbaya.”
The letter to which Sauve refers is dated July 24 and sent to him from the township’s attorney, Carol Rosati. In the letter, Rosati states the township had been made aware that Sauve had gone to several news channels claiming the “orange man” statue that was “left” in Atchison Park had been vandalized.
Rosati goes on to recount the history of the statue, which was installed at no cost in 2011 in the township-owned park with consent of the township board “to see how the residents reacted.” After installation, Rosati said in the letter, the township received “numerous complaints from residents who found the sculpture inappropriate and frightening to their children.”
Rosati goes on to note that lights were added to the artwork, which is located in close proximity to the Oakland Southwest Airport in New Hudson, and “subsequently, the township made contact with individuals to remove the sculpture,” alleging that “the person” with whom they spoke was told to have it removed in the spring, but it was never removed.
Sauve said he was never called, and when he was driving on I-96 July 3, he did not see the sculpture he created.
He initially thought he missed it, but upon further investigation, found it was gone altogether.
Supervisor John Dolan did not return a call for comment, but in a July 31 segment recorded by FOX 2 Detroit at the township offices, Dolan acknowledged the township maintenance department took the sculpture down. He explained that it was taken down because of vandals over the course of the last 10 years who had “put breasts and male things” on the sculpture.
Dolan said he never met Sauve, who had never come to the township offices, but said the township didn’t plan to cut it up. That’s despite the last line of Rosati’s letter, which states that if the statue was not removed within two weeks (Aug. 7), that is indeed what would happen.
“We were just trying to let them know that look, we don’t want it destroyed,” Dolan said, adding that if the township board voted to put it back up, he’d “be all over it, sure.”
Trustee Kristofer Enlow said he was never consulted about the removal of “Man in the City” to begin with and had always “kind of liked it.” The art installation was the only one he knew of in the township, perhaps unsurprising as Rosati noted in her letter to Sauve that an “Art in the Park” concept was scrapped from a 2014 parks and recreation master plan after negative comments.
“I am an engineer and not the most artistic person, but having public art always seemed a good idea to me,” Enlow said. “There weren’t any problems with it that I’m aware of… I was surprised and didn’t know why or that it was being taken down. I think it should have been discussed by the township board.”
He hopes that discussion will happen at the next township board meeting, planned for 6 p.m. Aug. 7, the date Sauve had originally been told his sculpture would be “cut up.”
Artworks by Sauve can be found at multiple universities, and in cities including New York, Chicago and Detroit, where a 12-foot “Man in the City” is installed along the riverfront.
As of Aug. 1, he had already received calls within just a few hours from the cities of Mt. Clemens, Pontiac and Warren, all telling him they’d love to have his art in their cities.But while Sauve is happy to be welcomed in those places, he still hopes to see his “Man in the City” back at its longtime Lyon Township home, where he originally envisioned it 25 years ago and where, with the help of former Planning Commissioner John Bell and former Supervisor Lannie Young, it was installed in 2011.
Sauve repainted the sculpture himself twice over the years and said it was most recently painted by Ron Boyd, one of the admirers of the work, to cover over graffiti. Now Sauve said he’s had an offer from Corrigan’s to help him reinstall the artwork.
What he’s still waiting for is a phone call from township officials.
“Sometimes you don’t realize what you have ’til it’s gone,” Sauve said. “To get that piece on the hill was a miracle in itself. If they want it back up, it could be worked out, but it won’t start without a phone call. I’m not hard to find. We need to find a solution or it will be a casualty of public art.”
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Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com or 517-281-2412.
