Abstract
La Grande Vitesse (1969) by Alexander Calder has adorned the civic center in Grand Rapids, Michigan for nearly forty years. What does this sculpture mean to its publics? Drawing upon interdisciplinary insights from visual culture studies, this article argues that official archives combined with collections of vernacular imagery may assist with research into the meanings, values, and uses that citizens ascribe to public art. Understanding the local significance of public sculpture requires investigating how diverse publics creatively produce individual understandings, which are often expressed visually. As people produce logos, miniatures, and artistic responses to La Grande Vitesse, they contribute counter-images that elaborate their relationships to the original sculpture. These counter-images both produce and problematize established accounts of the sculpture's relevance to local publics.
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