Wasilla High School Sculpture Covered After Concerns

reply to post by nixie_nox


I see where you are coming from. The Percent For Art Program, as described in the article, does stimulate the economy in a sense (I guess) in that provides money to local business (artists). However, it would be a better experience if the artists colloborated with student artists for a more holistic educational experience Especially if they are using government dollars to the extent of 100K.

As far as the sexual under/overtones, (depending on how you look at it) I say BS.... However, the vagina was, is, and will always be a warrior despite what people say to discredit her.

I'm not surprised high school kids see something sexual in the statue. They're high school kids.

CORDELIA: Well, does looking at guns make you wanna have sex?
XANDER: I'm seventeen. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex.

I think the adults in this situation made a big mistake. They should have just laughed it off and let it go, which it eventually would have. But now that they've given all this justification to it, they're going to have to do something besides cover it with a tarp.

So any vertically-oriented ovoid shape is now considered a vagina? Pretty scary that somone got their whole hand in there..

Seriously though, why a vagina and not an eye?

Guaranteed that the same people censoring this art work because it "offended" someone would be the same people screaming bloody murder if it had been an xmas tree that was covered up because it "offended" someone.



The hypocrisy in this country staggers the mind.

Originally posted by DISINFORMANT
Seriously though, why a vagina and not an eye?

We better start banning cats then. They got two vaginas on their face.

reply to post by nixie_nox

The controversy is stupid. Public art is a civilising influence. Artists need to get paid, too.

Percent for Art Program
In 1975, the Alaska Legislature passed the Percent for Art in Public Places statute requiring the expenditure of one percent of the capital construction costs of public buildings for the acquisition and permanent installation of artwork. The Percent for Art Program is managed in conjunction with the Department of Transportation to achieve the following objectives:
-to provide access to works of art in public spaces;
-to offer a variety of visual experiences in varied styles, methods and medium to further humanize our man-made surroundings with the artistic statements of living artists;
-to provide a supportive working environment and the opportunity for personal creative accomplishment;
-to contribute to the development and recognition of a professional artistic community;
-and to accomplish broad cultural goals by introducing new visual ideas to the general public. www.eed.state.ak.us...

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck


I don't think that sounds like a bad program. But 100,000 all in one place? They probably could of placed sculptures all throughout the town.

reply to post by MrSensible


Religion has a lot to do with it. There's a reason they call people who get out-raged at everything that can be remotely interpreted as sexual as Puritanical. Religion has long sought to repress sexual desire and lead people to believe that sexual desire is unnatural in any context outside of marriage between a man and a woman. There's a reason I thought I was in danger of going to hell every time I had a dirty thought or sexual fantasy growing up, religious indoctrination. That anti-sex attitude and the attitude of considering parts of the body shameful or bad has spread into society in general as well.

As for the OP, it's absurd that they would censor this sculpture. Why does it have to be interpreted as a vagina again? Couldn't it be a side-ways eye as well? A seed? I think the sculpture is pretty cool, maybe not 100,000 dollars cool, but still.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

 

I don't think that sounds like a bad program. But 100,000 all in one place? They probably could of placed sculptures all throughout the town.

Artists (and art) are consistently undervalued. I love public art, and artists are entitled to make a living commensurate with their talents. I applaud Alaska for supporting culture in this manner...it's good for a community. Throwing a tarp over it is moronic, and a symbol of a larger malaise.

Anyone who says that looks like a vagina has not been laid in a while. Peoples imaginations sometimes get the better of them.

How sexually repressed must someone be to immediately see a woman's ''parts'' when viewing that sculpture ?

It's always amusing that the most puritanical of people always seem to be the ones who can't stop thinking about sex !

Reminds me of that Everybody Loves Raymond episode where his mother takes sculpture classes, brings back her work and insists Ray keeps it in his living room for everyone to see while completely obvlivious that to everyone else, it looks like a vagina.