Giant Bony Fish
Is an abandoned fish sculpture a ghost or survivor of the shark of capitalism?
Recently, my friend Courtney shared a photo on her Instagram stories of a skeletal fish sculpture she discovered in a fenced area behind a HomeGoods store in Easton Market in Columbus, OH, and asked if anyone had information about it.
Every so often I like to put a Reverse Image Search via Google Lens to the test, so I screenshot her story, cropped the pic to focus on the fish, and used the image to search for a match. After much scrolling, I couldn’t find anything helpful.
Becoming more curious by the minute myself, I looked at the area behind said Home Goods on Google Maps to perhaps get a better idea from a greater geographical context. Was the sculpture on a private lot? Was it in a public park? Could it have been a Banksy-like act of guerrilla art placed in a seemingly random spot?
Once I found the spot, I had to zoom in as far as I could, but, sure enough, there it was. Behind a fence in the middle of a pond, the blurred image of a skeletal fish sculpture, possibly made of wood and steel, under overcast skies suggests a kind of Surrealistic industrial urban gothic scene. And we know it has been there for at least six years because while the latest image is dated from October 2019, an earlier (and sunnier) Google Maps photo is dated from September 2018.
From a wider angle, you can see steps near the fence gate, which makes it look like a park or courtyard, maybe an unfinished or abandoned city project. Courtney said it was behind Easton Place apartments on the other side, but their website doesn’t mention anything about this area.
Then, I tried a Google Image Search simply using the terms "fish sculpture Columbus Ohio" and scrolled through those results.
Finally, I came upon a Yelp image of a fish sculpture that looked identical to the one in Columbus.
However, I went to the Yelp page and noted the address for this one is 2601 Stout Heritage Pkwy, Plainfield, IN 46168.
I searched the address on Google Maps and, as of last month, June 2024, the sculpture still stands, though not behind a fence. Like the one in Columbus, it resides in a pond. Was this a Midwestern phenomenon? Does a water company do this? What is the connection?
Elsewhere in the Google results when I searched the Plainfield address, I found a link to a Roadside America page, which refers to the address as “Metropolis Mall,” the sculpture as “Giant Bony Fish,” and credits the artist as William Moore. I briefly searched for artists named William Moore, but it’s a common enough name that there are a few of them, and I couldn’t find any obvious matches, much less matches from Indiana or Ohio.
After that particular roadblock, I switched gears and went back to the Roadside America page. In my earlier haste, I had failed to scroll down the page further where a commenter, “Jim, Plainfield Resident” had posted in 2010 that the sculpture was built in a retention pond by Galyan’s sporting goods company as a showpiece for their new corporate headquarters built on the shore of the pond. They went on to say that Dick’s bought out Galyan’s and the building sat empty for a couple of years.
In 1946, Albert and Naomi Galyan founded Galyan’s Trading Company in Indianapolis. The business was originally a successful grocery that also sold hunting and fishing supplies and, eventually, evolved into a sporting goods store.
Over the years, Albert appeared in the newspapers after his store was robbed; when he used new technology to crack down on bad checks; when Galyan’s agreed to hire Black employees after the NAACP protested and won; and when he spent his own money at an Indiana high school to buy haircuts and hamburgers for boys with long hair so they could become more employable.
In the seventies, Albert Galyan became ill with cancer and asked his son, Pat, to take over the business. Albert died in 1975 and Pat bought the store from Naomi Galyan in 1978. He managed it for several years before expanding. A second store opened in Indianapolis in 1983 then four more stores opened in Indiana in the next ten years.
In 1993, Galyan’s announced plans to build a fifth store, in Columbus, Ohio, and it was going to be bigger and better than the others — as much an experience as a store. An innovation in sports goods retailing, the store was almost twice as big as the other Galyan’s locations, built on two levels, sported a modern design, and offered customers a chance to climb on a 42-foot indoor climbing wall. Outside, the store had more space for volleyball and basketball courts, batting cages, golf practice areas, a running track, and boating equipment. Pat announced that this store was a prototype for the rest of the chain. Feeling like he had to compete with the big-box stores, he wanted his retail shops to feature an understanding of the sporting culture. Galyan’s called itself “The World’s Coolest Sports Store.”
At some point, these fish sculptures were commissioned and placed in the pond behind the store in Columbus and in front of the headquarters in Plainfield. Perhaps Galyan’s was marking its territory in a sense.
Sales had grown, but the company did not have the capital to grow nationally alone. So, in 1995, The Limited Inc. bought Galyan’s for $32 million. That company had been running its namesake The Limited stores as well as Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Victoria’s Secret, and Bath & Body Works. The Limited said it would build fifty new stores by 2000, bringing sales up to possibly $500 million, and Pat Galyan would stay on as CEO of the chain, which was to remain headquartered in Plainfield, Indiana, at 2601 Stout Heritage Parkway.
Over the next two years, Galyan’s opened stores in Minneapolis-St. Paul and in Kansas City. I couldn’t find giant bony fish sculptures at either address, though there is a pond behind the one in Minneapolis-St. Paul, so conceivably there could have been a plan to eventually put one there.
Pat Galyan suddenly left his job as CEO in 1997, two years after the acquisition, stating he wished to retire at the age of 47 (my age) to spend more time with his family. The company’s new CEO was Joel Silverman, who made some management infrastructure changes, remodeled the budget, and tried to get Galyan’s ready for the national stage. The company went public in 2001, selling its stock on the NASDAQ. By mid-2002, Galyan’s had twenty-six stores in sixteen states.
It was all happening, but not quickly enough.
Twenty years ago this month, in June 2004, Galyan’s was bought out by Dick’s Sporting Goods. They cleaned house and shuttered the headquarters. Plainfield was devastated. At one point, Rolls Royce took over the old headquarters building to build fighter plane engines, courtesy of the Department of Defense. Now, the property appears available to lease.
After Dick’s Sporting Goods left its Columbus location in Easton Market, that building was refashioned to contain Sierra Trading Post, Marshalls, and HomeGoods stores.
After the buyout, Silverman was appointed as the Commissioner of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles by then Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels, but beset with issues and public outcry, stepped down after two years. He now serves as Advisor to the President of Geneva College, a private Christian college in Pennsylvania.
Pat Galyan dabbled in other ventures, some more successful in others. In an interview last year for the podcast The Necessary Entrepreneur, he discussed what he has been doing, what he had learned running the company, what he appreciates, but lamented the acquisition of Galyan’s by The Limited and, later, Dick’s, and how it didn’t fix what wasn’t broken, as it were:
“Once The Limited acquired and then Dick’s acquired, they completely wrecked the culture. And once the culture is wrecked, everything that comes behind it is wrecked.”
I returned to the Yelp page where I had found the photo of the sculpture in Plainfield, and discovered that, once again, I had not scrolled down far enough when I quickly visited earlier and, as a result, had missed yet another helpful comment. Ken N. of Mooresville, IN, posted in 2018 that the fish sculpture is by Matthew Berg, an Indianapolis artist who now lives in Valparaiso, not William Moore. He was commissioned by Galyan's in 1997 to make sculptures for some of the businesses. Since there is a pond on site, and Galyan’s was known partly for its fishing gear, it seemed appropriate that the sculpture was of a fish appearing to jump out of the water. Another quick search yielded this page by the American Galvanizers Association where a corrosion prevention system was provided for the sculpture in 1997. The “specifier” listed is Matthew A. Berg.
Ken N. listed several other public art pieces by Berg around the Indianapolis area: "Transcendence" (2002) on the Franklin University campus; "Children of the World" (2000) for Kiwanis International at 3636 Woodview Place; and "Bear" (1997) at 56th and Eagle Creek Reservoir, a two-story bear made of oxidized steel gifted to the city by Galyan’s after the Dick’s buyout and another big creature who may reclaim the Earth long after the humans are gone.
Berg is an artist who runs a railing and custom metal fabrication business with his wife. Their website states, “Since 1987, MAB & Associates has provided architectural solutions by furnishing and installing architectural products such as custom decorative Steel, Aluminum and Glazed – Glass.” Indeed, an example of art, craft, and commerce as practical bedfellows.
Of the fish sculpture, Ken N. added:
“Though Galyan's is no longer in business, it is nice to see the new tenants of the location have kept the art installation.”
Galyan’s ceases to exist. Its leaders have moved on. The old headquarters in Plainfield is now empty. The pond in Columbus is sequestered. The sculptures have outlived their original commercial intent.
And yet, the art remains, like us, awaiting rediscovery and reappraisal.