UKH

Newly unveiled public sculpture vandalised to highlight poverty - should art have a place or are the protestors right?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-43553317

In reply to subtle:

Art should have a place and the protestors are not only in the wrong, but horribly counterproductive.
Where do you stop?
Vandalise anything using public money(*) which doesn't feed the homeless?

*I see this sculpture had £100k of crowdfunding put toward it, which is presumably PRIVATE money, plus "grants", the amount of which is not detailed in the article.
 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I can see both sides to that.

I can imagine that if I were a hungry and homeless person it would seem rather galling to view a newly unveiled commemorative statue, and I probably wouldn't sit wondering how the finances for the statue were raised.

 

In reply to subtle:

I wouldn't be surprised if the culprits are trustafarians.

In reply to subtle:

No doubt I wouldn't either in that situation. 

But I'm willing to bet that the perpetrators are middle class trustafarian pseudo-crusty types. 

 

 

In reply to subtle:

Art ceased to have any place when the Take Hart gallery was decommissioned. Nothing of any consequence has emerged in the interim.

In reply to subtle:

I'm thinking that there might have been better ways of making a protest, doing something at the local town hall perhaps?

In reply to Chris Harris:

Assumptions, much?

In reply to Clauso:

What did it morph in to?

In reply to subtle:

I dunno,  i reckon the written messages tick all the boxes to be art in their own right.

its clearly instilled emotion in people even if its not the intended emotions. 

In reply to paul_the_northerner:

And let's be frank the statue looks a bit shit....

In reply to subtle:

I’m not sure I rate the statue very highly as a piece of art, but that is beside the point. Yes art has a place, whether publicly funded or privately as this statue appears to be.

Of course the protestors who probably think themselves caring left wing types are playing the same zero sum game as the right likes to do when it calls for public funding for all sorts of arts and cultural to be stopped (not the high art they enjoy obviously).

Art and culture can play a huge role in improving communities, increasing economic activity and providing jobs for those that can work and resources to support those that can’t. I’m obviously not saying that this statue has done that, but what was been the impact of the Eric Morecambe statue in Morecambe, what is the impact of Banksy on Bristol’s local economy?

I played a small part in erecting a public statue in my home town a couple of years ago, that has had a modest, but noticeable impact on the town.

In reply to Clauso:

You are ignoring the wonderful footprint installation I've been making in the Lake District - you'll find, if you join them all up and orient them correctly, a marvellous version of the "Last Supper".   Unfortunately some vandals keep messing them up with their own footprints, most inconsiderate.   I don't know where to turn for my next installation, perhaps a hidden loudspeaker on the screes below Great End calling out "Can you lend me a bob for the bus fare home?" randomly?

In reply to Blue Straggler:

And where do you start? 

One man's vandalism is another man's art.

UKC has a large number of people who admit to destroying cairns built by other wayfarers because the structures have no right to be there, in their opinion. So if a Goldsworthy sphere or cone was happened across in the fells, would it be destroyed with the same justification. 

And if not, why not?

 

 

 

In reply to wercat:

Glad you liked my work. I call it Evocation of Elevation with Water, but most people just call it The Lakes. Just wish people would stop walking all over it. Its art you know!

Dave

In reply to subtle:

They should have made the sculpture out of chocolate

In reply to Tringa:

 

sure it isn't Slart's Fast Art?

 

In reply to Tom Valentine:

A decent point, and you could have used quality graffiti (not just Banksy but any of the brilliant stuff that's been done globally in the past 4 decades) as a rather more tangible example than Goldsworthy. 

And I am sure some people thought Schoenberg's music was a sort of vandalism.

And I am sure there are great cases of actual vandalism or destruction of other art, being artistic acts in themselves.

etc. etc. 

HOWEVER in the case of vandalising the Bowie statue, my opinion is that there is no art to the act.