A couple of public art works have blown in, or crawled up, to Miami Beach in time for Art Basel, one of which will be here to stay, the other will recede. The permanent installation comes courtesy of an artist known for his public works, New York-based Brian Tolle, who created

a water-movement piece under a bridge for the Whitney Biennial in 2002.

Tolle sticks with the water theme, although with a windy twist. “The Tempest” is a blue-and-white, walk-about maze in the newly (and wonderfully) landscaped Collins Park, in front of the Bass Museum. Sitting in front of a cluster of large palm trees, it looks at first glance like ocean waves breaking over sand — the blue fiberglass spilling over the white powder-coated aluminum. Once you get close to the piece, you see you can enter its spiraled maze, as some park visitors were doing on this sunny day.

But as is appropriate for a public art work in South Beach, “Tempest” changes dramatically as night falls and its LED lights go on. It can still look like waves, but from a perch in any of the surrounding buildings, you see that the spiral is the uniform sign for hurricane — a tempest indeed. Close up the installation has movement and asks of the observer to actively participate. From up high and at a distance, it becomes a more static symbol and reminder of our precarious relationship with the sea, only yards away.

Joining Tolle’s piece eventually will be some giant pink snails — 45 in all — made from recycled plastic, which have already arrived over on the bay side near the Venetian Causeway and will slowly crawl their way to Collins Park by mid-December. It’s part of a collaboration between the Cracking Art Groups and Italy’s Galleria Ca d’Oro, which will be opening a gallery in the Gables soon, that has placed colored animal installations in Europe to elevate the discussion about the environment. This is the first time they’ve landed in the Western hemisphere.

The reused material is not the only talking point for the discussion. Those creatures that move at, yes, a snail’s pace (they will literally be picked up and moved bit by bit) are also supposed to remind us that in this hyper-active world, it’s time to slow down, and think about our footprints — or slime prints — on this earth.

“The Tempest” by Brian Tolle will remain at the southwest corner of Collins Park permanently; the pink snails will creep about at various places until Jan. 3.