Public Art Field Guide: Nautical Compass

Much of the public art in Arlington is cataloged and curated by various organizations. Arlington Arts, or more officially "Arlington Cultural Affairs," offers guided public art tours of Arlington, and publishes short summaries of several pieces of the "permanent" public art collection on its website.

But for every identifiable public art statue, monument or collage, there are two or three anonymous pieces of art, scattered throughout Arlington County. These pieces are not any less glamorous then their titled brethren, only more mysterious and poetic in the anonymity - the info databases of curators and public art experts unable to keep up with their proliferation.

One of the many lesser known statues is a large navagational compass, forged of some sort of metal (brass, bronze or steel), that sits quietly oustide the Navy League Buidling at the corner of N. Wayne Street and Wilson Boulevard. The spherous compass ross consists of many rings and an abstract center, unable to rotate and unlikely to assist misguided pedestrains in their quest for directional-certitude.

But the statue has other powers besides wayfinding, a sort of magical ability to recall history, summoning thoughts of compasses Ptolemy might have used to map the unkown landscape. Or maybe the statue reminds an onlooker of what Ferdinand Magellan stared down at as he painstakenly charted his way towards the "Spice Islands."

There's something poetic about an anonymous piece of public art. No artist to claim the glory of its creation--truly "public" in every sense of the word. No title to influence the viewer's interpretation. A piece of art, simply in existence for the bemusement of its onlookers, there to inspire and intrigue.

This article is one interpretation of an unknown statue. What do you think of this unnamed piece of art? Is it even a compass at all? What is the symbolic significance?

Help out, Patch readers, if you have any detailed knowledge or explaination of this statue by posting your thoughts on the comment thread below. Thanks, and happy public art viewing... until next time.