‘Busted Plug’ is out to pasture. But Columbia can still see other Blue Sky works
Columbia erupted when it saw images of the once-prominent “Busted Plug” sculpture laying in a field outside of town. But other works by local artist Blue Sky can still be found around the capital city, if you know where to look.
The 40-foot-tall fire hydrant was removed from its former site on Taylor Street in 2023 and shipped to a secluded property north of Columbia, where it has sat ever since in the open air behind a locked gate. The State found the sculpture in its current location and published the photos last week.
Columbia pledges that the “Busted Plug” will still find a new home, likely in a renovated city park. In the meantime the hydrant isn’t the only piece by Blue Sky on display in the area, and fans of the Columbia-based artist can find his other works of art if they know where to look.
“Tunnelvision”
On the same block where “Busted Plug” was displayed from 2001 until its removal, another work by Blue Sky can still be seen.
The mural near the intersection of Taylor and Marion streets depicts a roadway seemingly running through a tunnel heading toward a sunset out of the downtown parking lot. Blue Sky said in an interview with Experience Columbia that the image came to him in a dream.
The arts advocacy group One Columbia measures the trompe-l’oeil (that’s the art term for an optical illusion) at 50 feet by 75 feet.
“Neverbust”
The only other three-dimensional item on this list is the Neverbust chain. This five-link chain made out of welded steel hangs suspended between two historic buildings in the Main Street district.
The chain was installed in 2000 over the walkway between the historic Kress and Sylvan buildings. Its location places it just across the street from Boyd Plaza in front of the Columbia Museum of Art.
The One Columbia listing for the piece notes that the city only approved the installation after the fact, when the artist had it surreptitiously added to the side of the building early one morning.
“Five Points in 1948”
Blue Sky painted this mural on the side of the old Harper’s Restaurant in the summer of 1991.
The building at the intersection of Devine, Santee and Harden streets now houses Home Team BBQ, but the mural on the rear of the building survived the transition.
The 14-foot by 60-foot mural shows an imagined scene one might have seen looking down the Devine Street hill toward Five Points more than 40 years earlier. It includes the white stucco Gulf station that once sat on the site where the restaurant is now.
A plaque beside the mural dedicates it to Blue Sky’s cousin Eugene Elison Fetner, whose 1941 Dodge is depicted in the painting.
“Vista Vision, Fleeting Glance”
This mural was painted in 2019 on the side of a downtown parking garage.
Visible from the intersection of Assembly and Gervais streets, the 25-foot by 56-foot, purple-tinted mural shows a woman’s eyes looking in the direction of the Statehouse, above the words “window to the soul.”
The mural, adjacent to a downtown parking lot, was funded through an online crowd-funding campaign, the One Columbia listing for the piece notes.
“Adopt Us”
A marker erected for Columbia’s animal adoption center when it was originally built in 1999, this highly visible creation sits outside the animal services’ headquarters overlooking Shop Road right before the interchange with Interstate 77.
The mural is painted over cement-block walls covered in stucco, topped with the giant heads of a black-and-white puppy and a white-and-orange kitten.
The eye-catching display is meant to draw people to the animal services adoption center on Humane Lane, and take home their own versions of the artist’s creations.
“Rubble Without a Cause”
Completed in 2020, this Five Points mural takes inspiration from Blue Sky’s own “Neverbust” chain, which is depicted in the mural.
Painted on a wall overlooking the parking lot off of Blossom Street and Santee Avenue. It’s the artist’s most recent addition to the Columbia landscape.
The piece was commissioned by the Five Points Association as a measure to beautify the retail and nightlife district. Association president Steve Cook said the group coordinated with the property owner to install the piece, and don’t intend to take it down anytime soon.
“None of that stuff is going to go away,” Cook said.
“Gervais Street Extension”
This piece of artwork is located inside the S.C. State Museum on Gervais Street. The museum commissioned Blue Sky in 1989 to add some art to the museum’s Vista Room, which the artist decided to open up by “extending” the Gervais Street bridge outside into the interior meeting space.
The mural offers a dim twilight view of the Columbia skyline as seen from the bridge spanning the Congaree River between Columbia and West Columbia.
The State Museum also has at least three other works by Blue Sky in its collection, both in metalwork and collage, including the 3D model Blue Sky constructed while painting the “Gervais Street Extension” mural.
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