Coffman Park art hidden from plain view
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By Adam Cairns/ThisWeek
The copper Watch House, located near the Post Road entrance to the Dublin Recreation Center, was created by Todd Slaughter in 1998. It was inspired by the Hopewell and Adena cultures that once lived in the Dublin area.
Editor's note: The fifth in an eight-part series on public art in Dublin.
The circular Indian mound and copper house that make up Coffman Park's Watch House can be hard to find if you're not looking for them.
Watch House, built in 1998, was Dublin's fifth addition to its art in public places portfolio.
The 20-foot by 10-foot copper house, situated on a lip of a circular Indian mound in Coffman Park, 5200 Emerald Parkway, can be tough to spot despite its size.
"Part of the intent of the artist was to discover Watch House," said David Guion, Dublin Arts Council executive director. "It's off the beaten path. You have to discover it. There are a lot of complaints about, 'Where is Watch House?' So you really have to want to see it."
Parks and open space director Fred Hahn can provide good directions.
"As you're pulling off of Post Road to the left-hand side there is a large earthen mound in front of the rec center. The earthen mound is part of the piece," he said. "(Watch House) isn't that prominent. You can see it from the road, but you almost have to be looking for it."
The artwork, by Columbus artist Todd Slaughter, sits on the northwest corner of Post Road and the entrance to the recreation center. A path is cut into the grass to walk to Watch House and around the mound, but the site looks like a field with prairie grass and wildflowers.
Inside the 8-foot-high Indian-inspired mound's shrunken center is prairie grass and sunflowers, a reference to the crops of the Hopewell Indians who share a piece of Dublin's past. Seeds were planted at the dedication of the artwork.
Inside Watch House are dirt and four seats to sit and reflect. Cutouts in Watch House's large copper dome feature shapes of a bed, chairs and children's toys.
According to a 1998 press release from the Dublin Arts Council, the artwork is "inspired by Dublin's history, its people, the Hopewell and Adena cultures and the area's changing landscape and architecture. With its images of domestic culture and the copper sphere's allusion to galactic space and the future, the sculpture symbolizes the continuity and spirit of Dublin."
Slaughter, currently a professor in Ohio State University's art department, told the Dublin Villager in 1998 that the project was an evolution of his ideas.
"It's not really intended to be a memorial (of the past), but a symbol of the continuum of how Dublin has evolved," he said.
Watch House had the art council's highest budget for art in public places when it was built in 1998. The $120,000 budget included money from the city's hotel/motel tax and grants from Washington Township and the Ohio Arts Council. The project also included $35,000 of in-kind contributions.
