IMAGE: SculptureWalk

From a reader’s email;

I was driving down Phillips on Saturday afternoon and there were a bunch of people downtown looking at the sculptures, etc and there were two ADULT women on the bicycle having their picture taken.

They were SITTING on it like it was a play thing.  Then on the 0ther side of the street there were three younger females and one looked around before climbing on top of the stone/rock to have her picture taken with the rabbit.

This is not an adult playground…it is ART.

Some of the pieces are probably durable enough to do stuff like this, but like the reader said, they are not play things. Please appreciate them from a distance.

24 Thoughts on “DT Sculptures are not ‘Play Things’

  1. I disagree. They place this art outside, in the open, downtown, by bars and they expect people to just look? Art should be functional, right? It should not be defaced or destroyed but come on…that’s a bike! Who wouldn’t want to sit on it. If it’s that fragile, put it behind glass.

  2. Daizi46 on June 4, 2012 at 5:19 pm said:

    last time I checked a bike had actual rubber wheels and was able to move…just sayin

  3. You can’t seriously be surprised that some of the morons in this town wouldn’t sit on a bicycle sculpture!

  4. And it is probably durable enough to withstand it, but some pieces are not.

  5. Bond Perilous on June 5, 2012 at 12:34 am said:

    Really? Who gives a fuck? I know of a lot sculptors that intend for their art to be playful. Who designs a sculpture of a bike and is then offended when someone gets on it? It’s like Jenna Jamison…it has “mount me” written all over it!

  6. Lemming on June 5, 2012 at 1:02 am said:

    C’mon Bond…have you seen some of the hog’s walking down Phillips Avenue lately? Some of these dainty artworks ain’t meant to withstand 300 lbs of flabby female beefcake!

  7. Bond Perilous on June 5, 2012 at 1:19 am said:

    Ok Lemming, I’ll give ya that. But those land whales should know better than to mount anything…or anyone!

  8. You know what they say about fat chicks and mopeds.

  9. rufusx on June 5, 2012 at 10:19 am said:

    Now there’s a mental image I don’t really need in the morning.

  10. Craig on June 5, 2012 at 10:40 am said:

    I wouldn’t think of trying to sit on any of the art nor would I play grab-ass with any of the statues, but I know full well that art in the public gets a lot of hands-on attention and must be designed as such.

    Anything with texture or interest invokes a desire for people to touch it… that is human nature. Even in art galleries you see people trying to touch the art which is why we often see velvet ropes and “please don’t touch” signs as a reminder, even though we already know we ‘shouldn’t’ touch the art.

    Sculpture walk is a great idea, but they really need to think of the public when selecting the pieces. Anything which is delicate, fragile, or easily broken probably won’t hold up very well.

    On the flip side, what would probably work really well are pieces which invite the user to touch them. Objects with moving parts such as gears or levers which require viewer participation would probably go over well, or at the very least they would keep hands off of the other ‘purdy’ pieces nearby that are meant for eyes only.

    Personally I’m just waiting for a huge vase to be featured on Sculpturewalk because by the end of the first month it should be full of used diapers and empty Gatorade bottles. If it looks like a trash can people will treat it like a trash can.

  11. “On the flip side, what would probably work really well are pieces which invite the user to touch them.”

    I saw Dali’s bronze sculpture traveling exhibit a few years back at the SC Art Center, it was setup for the blind, and they were encouraged to touch the pieces.

  12. D.E. Bishop on June 5, 2012 at 5:21 pm said:

    Lemming, Bond, and Detroit — WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!? You have totally debased yourselves talking about women that way.

    What would ever make you think it is okay to talk about other human beings in such a disgraceful, disrespectful and derogatory way? Have you ever really looked into the eyes of one of those painfully obese women? Do you think for some incredibly stupid reason that they are less than human simply because they are obese? Are you one of those cruel, juvenile jackasses who belittles, humiliates and shames obese people?

    How old are you guys? Do you make fun of disabled people too? Tease mentally retarded folks? Gay bash? Do you have enough class to at least be ashamed?

    I’ve been reading this blog for a few years, and overall had a good impression of most of the commenters here. You three have just plummeted like a boulder in my esteem, and I’m probably not the only one here who feels that way. I can’t believe your behavior.

  13. Oh, I knew this was coming . . . I’m short, fat, and have grey hairs shooting from all over my body. I don’t care what people say about me, I have learned to accept who I am, as I’m sure most short, fat people have. If they have not accepted it, they have choices. Go on a diet, workout and get plastic surgery. The first two are free.

  14. Bond Perilous on June 5, 2012 at 11:16 pm said:

    Hitch up your high horse Bishop. She’s well lathered and needs a rest.

    Obese people ought to know better but continue to made poor choices…just like smokers, al-keys, crackheads, etc. To equate that with gay bashing, or the belittlement of people that are different from birth is utterly ridiculous! When I – a perfectly healthy adult male – have to pay $400 for health insurance each month to subsidize the healthcare of others who make poor choices…then yeah, I reserve the right to say what I want about them. Does that make me an asshole? Maybe, but at least I’m not a self-righteous douche hammer. 

    *neigh*neigh*

    Do you hear that? I think it’s your high horse calling…

  15. Lemming on June 5, 2012 at 11:34 pm said:

    Yea, a tad bit dramatic there Bishop. A little cynical humor on our part does not make us haters of handicapped people! If it makes you feel better, I have “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “Baby got back” and “Whole Lotta Rosie” on my MP3 player!

  16. l3wis on June 5, 2012 at 11:35 pm said:

    I do want to apologize if women took offense, that was not my intention. Not at all. I just don’t think being obese is a pre-determined physical attribute, it is a choice. I have worked in the restaurant industry long enough to know this, trust me. I see the same people return day after day gorging themselves, including myself. You have choices.

  17. The thing that makes me chuckle a bit is my fascination with full-figured women. I have made it no secret that I love Bettie Page, who by all accounts was no skinny-minny. In fact I commend her for showing what ‘real’ women look like. Our fascination with the ‘perfect’ figure is kinda disgusting to tell you the truth. I in know way would compare the mentally handicapped with people who like cheeseburgers.

  18. Daizi46 on June 6, 2012 at 8:05 am said:

    My, my, my..how interesting the comments got! Of COURSE the focus would be a fat woman…HEAVEN forbid it would be about the art and whether it is appropriate to sit on the items. AND…WTH how do I know one of you “fatties” sitting behind your computer, making comments weren’t sitting on an art piece…Hmmmmm????? 😛

  19. l3wis on June 6, 2012 at 12:38 pm said:

    I am a proud member of the Cheetos Brigade! As for functional art, I bought a sculpture a few years back that Angry Guy coined as the ‘Art Dildo’. Still trying to figure out how it would work, but let’s just say he ruined the piece for me. Kinda.

  20. D.E. Bishop on June 6, 2012 at 5:38 pm said:

    What I said has nothing to do with the size or eating habits of any of you. It has nothing to do with gender either. If you want to make fun of yourselves go ahead.

    Obesity can be caused by a variety of physical illnesses, medications, and other factors. Overeating is one of them. But apparently you boys are not concerned with that. You’ve made your snap judgments and shouted your insults and you are happy.

    You clearly don’t know anything about eating disorders. Do you have a clue about how counterproductive it is to try to shame someone into changing a behavior? Simply trying to shame anyone is a shameful behavior in itself.

    Don’t you get it that it is young children who make fun of others for any reason? Do you really think it is okay for adult men to speak in that way about human beings? Do you really think that such words are not hurtful? I can’t believe you are trying to defend such shameful behavior.

  21. D.E. Bishop on June 6, 2012 at 5:49 pm said:

    Here is the gist of it:

    You don’t have to like obese people, or excuse their obesity. Go ahead and say to yourself, “That person is really overweight!”

    That’s not the problem. The problem is your language, your name-calling. That is what is childish and shameful. Are we clear?

  22. l3wis on June 6, 2012 at 10:23 pm said:

    “Obesity can be caused by a variety of physical illnesses, medications, and other factors.”

    You are exactly correct. But I wasn’t talking about those people.

    “The problem is your language, your name-calling.”

    Would agree, something I have been working on. But I will never give up on my cynicism or sense of humor. If I, or the other commenters would have been making fun of a specific person, I would not tolerate it, jokes are in a general sense, you know, like “A Jew, a Priest and a Mormon walk into a bar.” I am often baffled when people say they are ‘offended’ by something I have said on this site, yet don’t think two seconds about John Thune voting against rape protections for American contractors overseas.

    A joke is a joke.

  23. D.E. Bishop on June 8, 2012 at 5:25 pm said:

    Nah, making fun of people is not funny. I know some comedians do it. I don’t think it’s funny then either.

    I’m not obese. A little overweight, but not bad. But I have seen up close the pain caused to individuals who are made fun of. Because you are not talking about one particular individual does not mean that every obese person is not flinching and feeling personally hurt. It’s true of women and men, girls and boys.

    I just don’t get the need to hurt people. That’s what a joke about obese people does. It hurts them. Whether you think it should or not is irrelevant. It does, and it’s not your job to change that.

    I actually expected you gentlemen to apologize once you learned the things you had written were hurtful. I am even more astonished that you have defended yourselves. I still don’t get it.

    Don’t you know that most people don’t make fun of other people and call them names? It’s true among school children too. For instance, there have been 22 comments on this blog. Only three called people names.

    I know there are some blogs which are full of name-calling, profanities, etc. To me, those are junk blogs, and I don’t read them. I don’t think southdacola is a junk blog, but this episode doesn’t do anything positive for your reputation.

    I don’t need to write more about this, and you don’t need to respond unless you want to. I think I’ve talked about this as much as I need to. Thanks for the opportunity to do so.

  24. l3wis on June 8, 2012 at 7:07 pm said:

    “I don’t need to write more about this”

    good

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