An early departure

Richard WHITE thinks the title of his ceramic sculpture "Insignificant Works of Art" was taken too literally by the official in charge of art exhibitions at John Wayne Airport, resulting in a double dose of disrespect: First the piece was censored, with the removal of two of its 10 figures, then what remained was put on display in a makeshift configuration -- all without White's being notified.

The group show that contained the work -- "Orange County Contemporary Ceramics" -- opened Oct. 25 and is scheduled to run through Feb. 21 at the Santa Ana airport, in an area where only ticketed passengers are allowed. White's piece, however, is no longer a part of it. He didn't see the display until late November, when he escorted his two young daughters to a flight. Upset by the changes, he asked that "Insignificant Works" be removed.

The piece, chosen by a guest curator, was a series of five pairs of male and female figures, intended, in the artist's words, as a "commentary concerning relationships and their ramifications." The missing figures, both about 2 feet tall, were men pegged to the wall by their collars, with slumped shoulders and hanging heads.

At first fearing they had been broken or stolen, White, a 55-year-old ceramics professor at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, began a series of e-mail exchanges in which he learned that Jeffrey Frisch, the airport's arts coordinator since 1998, had removed the two figures because he thought they depicted dead people -- which might be upsetting for some passengers. The airport then complied with White's request to have his work taken out of the show and returned to him. Another artist, Jorg Dubin, withdrew in support of White.

Frisch, White said in a recent interview, "is a sculptor himself, so he should have known you don't take parts of a piece out" and then present the remnant as the artist's work.

"It's a humiliating experience," he said. "It's important to you, and the public isn't able to see what you did. They see something else."

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Following the rules

Frisch declined to be interviewed and referred questions to Jenny Wedge, spokeswoman for the Orange County-run airport. In e-mails that White forwarded to The Times, Frisch had explained that his rules for airport art are "no nudity . . . no profanity and . . . nothing controversial."

On top of that, Frisch wrote, is a responsibility not to add to the anxiety some travelers feel before flying. He said he vetoed White's two figures because they might "easily engender anxiety and upset in the viewer."