...feces is an art form.

A four foot concrete pipe sits perpendicular to the ground with large splashes of a hard, brown substance bursting from the pipe's mouth in an animated explosion. Close by, another pipe protrudes from the underground. Broken in the middle, the pipes brown-colored contents gush outward, spilling into the surrounding dirt.

Not a broken sewage pipe, and not the remnants of a vicious monsoon, it could only be one thing: a $140,000 piece of crap--uh, I mean--art.

The final product of artist Paul Edwards design, part of the Mountain Avenue expansion project of 1995, caused a huge uproar in in 2003 after its completion.

The two sculptures on Glenn and Fort Lowell, although resembling a broken sewage pipe, are actually symbolic of desert water flowing through a wash.

(picture1) (picture2)

After spending thousands of dollars on the project, the city spent much more taking neighborhood polls and conducting several city council meetings to decide the next course of action. Should the "water" be painted blue, should it be moved, should it be destroyed?

I read this article last week written by Jim Nintzel of the Tucson Weekly in the hight of the controversy.

The emphasis and resources spent on this project are indicative of Tucson's highly community oriented atmosphere, among other things, (many other things.)

The City of Tucson, for instance, sent of survey to residents of the surrounding neighborhoods that got a lot of responses from the community. Some of my favorite are:

The results at Glenn and Fort Lowell appear to be the effects of an enema introduced to the storm drain at Grant Road.

Please let my kids paint the stupid thing with color. Just buy me the paint at Ace Hardware and I'll do it for free on weekends.

Use money for street potholes

This is the most disturbing (so-called art) I have ever seen. It looks like (crap) coming out of a broken sewer line and a troll buried in the ground with its feet sticking up.

Not everyone responded negatively:

Keep it. I kinda like the barf art.

So, it's been a few years now--what happened to the beloved sculptures? In a classic re-gifting effort, the city decided to dish out some more money and move them to the South Side at the park on Kino Parkway and 22nd Street. South Tucson unwrapped the gift, (which still bore the another's name scribbled out in magic marker), smiled kindly, gave a sarcastic "thanks, always-think-you're-better-than-me-central-Tucson," and put it in the waaaay back corner of the park. One rests half-hidden under an overgrown weed, and I sometimes see teenage love birds kissing on top of the one with a big burst of poop.

Really though, only in Tucson.