By Whitney Smith

whitney.smith@indystar.com

There will be no "Beliebing" at the Indianapolis International Airport after officials stopped the installation of a piece of artwork they commissioned by Columbus native Tre Reising last Janurary.

Carlo Bertolini, director of communications at the airport, said Reising's art — a sculpture —was going to be featured in a glass case on concourse B as a part of the quarterly contemporary art rotation. The piece was to be a blend of hip-hop culture, Bertolini said.

Instead, Reising submitted "#Belieb," which is the Twitter hash tag used by pop singer, Justin Bieber.

"It was approved (but) it was the week of the scheduled installation when we became aware of the focus was on one particular celebrity," Bertolini said.

He continued, "I think some of the headlines and certain events in the last few weeks (about Bieber), it wouldn't have been and ideal match for the airport family environment."

The 19-year-old pop star has recently been in the news for failing to stop smoking marijuana and being verbally abusive to a flight attendant while on a chartered flight from Ontario, Canada, to New Jersey, law enforcement officials reported. Bieber and his father were on their way to the Super Bowl.

This is the first time that Reising, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., has worked with the airport.

"It was kind of abrupt," he said. "They told me the day before it was supposed to install. It was obviously a little disappointing."

Hip-hop heads may not consider Bieber a hip-hop artist, but Reising who has done work for rappers Gucci Mane, Project Pat, and RiFF RAFF said Bieber has mass appeal.

"Justin Bieber is featured on some hip-hop tracks," he said. "Whether it's specifically hip-hop culture or pop culture, he definitely intersects both of those worlds."

Aside from Bieber being defined as a hip-hop artist or not, Reising said he was excited to have his artwork in a high-traffic area.

The sculpture, which Reising carved out out Styrofoam, painted and applied glitter to, took about two weeks for him to complete. His intent was to create a sculpture that users could place on social media networks like Instagram with the "hopes that it would become a meme" (an idea that spreads throughout culture).

Right now, the sculpture sits in the back of his truck, Reising said, but he hopes it will find a better home.

"It would be cool if I had another public pedestrian place to install the work at," he said. "If a gallery wanted to do that, I would not be against that. Hopefully I'll find some place locally to put it."

On Twitter, Reising has been chatting about the mishap, and he's even tweeted a picture of the sculpture to Bieber.

"He's got over 50 million follows so the chances of him seeing it from a tweet is really low, but I did try."

All hope is not lost though. Bertolini said the airport did pay him $500 for his work and will be working with him in the future.

"We regret the miscommunication that happened and we are in good standing with the artist," he said.

Reising said his work usually focuses on a particular person, but it will be "challenging in a good way" to think of another piece for the airport.

Contact Star reporter Whitney Smith at 444-6187 and follow her on Twitter and Facebook @IndysFruGal.