Lumpen Zombie Decepticon Public Art

[elfs]

Giant Zombies!

My city has been undergoing a renaissance of sorts, rebuilding its public square and replacing its late 60's-era rambler City Hall with a modern, four-storey construction of glass with a back that faces the city's main retail drag, curving along the curb, and a front that faces the city's largest open parking lot. (The satellite view is apparently after the tear-down, but before reconstruction began.) Being a modern, left-coast city, it commissioned some public art to decorate their front entrance.

This monstrosity is what they got. Called "mother and child," this 10-meter tall pair of lumpen zombie Decepticons striding across the parking lot is just the sort of thing to discourage any parent from taking young children to the city hall. The "mother" statue is especially disturbing, with her Barbie proportions, rasta-like dreads and menacing claws.

The city has recently announced that the statue is "temporary." Huh. I wonder why they might want to put a deadline on just how long this eyesore has to stay in sight.

Comments

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

Minor nit: that imagery is likely from aerial orthophotography, not a satellite. In fact, all of the fine detail Google Maps imagery is. I'm not certain exactly at what scale it changes over.

[boiwondering.livejournal.com]

It probably says something revealing and, I'm sure, not terribly flattering about me that I actually really like that statue, at least as shown in your photo. Then again, I moved to Seattle from a city where their idea of public art included a statue of a cowboy roping a gigantic bull with glowing red eyes (complete with lightbulbs) and a full set of udders barely hiding its penis.

Yeah, my tastes are probably skewed.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

She's the Other Mother statue.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Those were in San Francisco a couple years ago.

[radven.livejournal.com]

They were originally playa art in Black Rock City.

Personally, I find them stunning. Particularly the detail up close.

There is a whole series of similar giants designed in that style.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I'd wondered if those were by the same artist that did the ones that were at BM this year. I thought they were.

[qtplatypus.livejournal.com]

How wonderfully DownStrange.

[casualprofessor.livejournal.com]

One of art's functions is to provoke.

[(Anonymous)]

One of art's functions is to annoy.

Then the people who make & select it get to feel superior to the annoyed.

It's just like someone who plays heavy metal loudly at 3 am in your apartment building or installs giant bass speakers in the back of their car as a public ass arrival announcement system (Attention, please! An ass has arrived in your neighborhood! Please get a baseball bat and provide auto body reconfiguration services!)