A topic of discussion at r/madisonwi.
There are so many to choose from, but the biggest rivalry is between "Flayed Bucky by the Best Western on Highland by UW Hospital" and "The sculpture of the parents reaching out to their dead child in the cemetery on Speedway Road."
About that dead child sculpture, someone says:
I actually like that sculpture, although I'm probably not in the majority. If you ask me "how can I feel more alive?" I'd parrot Martin Heidegger, "spend more time in graveyards."
EDIT: Now that I know it's a "memorial" against abortion I don't like it anymore.
There's also "The turd on top of a pyramid on Regent Street" and the "crowning woman" and "The pale yellow man resting on the bike bridge at Jenifer Street." And "The plaques along Picnic Point that showcase monetary donations and ego over nature and historically sacred land."
Way too many people bring up the "footballs penis" and need to be told that was excised.
It's pretty hilarious that there was such a wealth of bad public art around here to choose from.
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55 comments:
It's pretty hilarious that there was such a wealth of bad public art around here to choose from
Reflections of the society. It’s unfortunate your reflection reveals you’re kind of morons…
The plaques along Picnic Point that showcase monetary donations and ego over nature and historically sacred land
I never considered those donation plaques as some for of artistic expression but if they are the message is ‘maintaining public spaces is expensive and our government doesn’t prioritize it so we need private donations’. (See my previous post…)
I don’t know if it counts as “public” art, but it is free to get into the Chazen so I’m going to count it - there’s a sculpture on the top floor that I’ve christened “Goat Boners,” and it’s the reason why I won’t bring my children to the museum. Two goats on their hind legs, about to French kiss, with extremely long and erect penises. Not a fan.
I'd parrot Martin Heidegger
You can always tell you’re in a college town by the thick layer of pretentious snobbery encountered. As for me, I expect to spend several centuries in a graveyard, and that will be plenty.
"Now I don't like it" - supporter of killing babies must prioritize the killing of babies above all other considerations in life.
Molech and Mammon nod in agreement.
EDIT: Now that I know it's a "memorial" against abortion I don't like it anymore.
To clarify that comment: Now that they are reminded that abortion is actually about killing a baby, they don't like it.
Few persons take pride in the wicked solution and do not want to be reminded of their choice and consequences.
The statue of the never born child is not public art. It is a private sanctuary for Project Rachel, a national Catholic ministry to men and women suffering regret about abortion and welcoming them into the Church's love with mercy, forgiveness, and compassion.
If you choose to be flippant about that, then you are a small and unfeeling person invading on private grief. Nobody is forcing you to participate: it is private religious art on Church property in a Catholic cemetery.
At minimum, get the facts right, or correct the inaccuracies.
Most of the impetus for public art is based on a jobs program, not an arts program. The quality of the art has been left to the administrators of the organizations fundraising for the art to support their point of view. The artists get a commission, and the administrators get full-time jobs, public praise (and criticism, but they don't read that), and the assurance that they have "made a difference". I do community music, have been inside these orgs, and have seen it from that perspective. The two prime directives are to create public art and increase funding and support to create more and better jobs for arts administrators.
The artists are expected to work for as little as possible.
This is the same sort of impetus that put all those statues of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee throughout the south about 120 years ago. How's that working? Now we have to destroy or hide the evidence for all that.
"You can always tell you’re in a college town by the thick layer of pretentious snobbery encountered."
I realize it's Madison and cheap shots feel good, but there's a pretty good amount of space between "pretentious snobbery" and philistinism. It's a pretty commonly used (perhaps even to the point of being abused) Heidegger quote.
"The statue of the never born child is not public art...."
It's not publicly owned, but it is on public view. In fact, it is very conspicuous, right next to a busy road.
"It is a private sanctuary for Project Rachel..."
I've never gone to any private sanctuary to see it, and I've seen in many thousands of times.
"If you choose to be flippant about that, then you are a small and unfeeling person invading on private grief."
The statute is invading my field of view. I and a million others have had it imposed on us. If you want it only seen in private, you don't put it by the side of the road.
"Nobody is forcing you to participate..."
Wrong.
Does the term "public art" exclude art that is not publicly owned?
From the Wikipedia article "Public Art":
"Independent art created or staged in or near the public realm (for example, graffiti, street art) lacks official or tangible public sanction has not been recognized as part of the public art genre, however this attitude is changing due to the efforts of several street artists. Such unofficial artwork may exist on private or public property immediately adjacent to the public realm, or in natural settings but, however ubiquitous, it sometimes falls outside the definition of public art by its absence of public process or public sanction as "bona fide" public art."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_art
I'm not trying to define the term for the purpose of the Redditor question. The people answering the question showed their understanding of it, and they included privately owned art, not just the Catholic cemetery art, but also the "crowning woman." They took it to mean art that you have to see when you're going about in Madison.
If that statue were intended for private sanctuary, it should have been sited differently. How can you reflect and mediate right by the side of a busy road?
I think it's more that they are trying to send a message to the general public that you'll be deeply troubled if you abort a child. It's like those billboards that say things like "Abortion stops a beating heart." It's advertising an opinion.
"In fact, it is very conspicuous, right next to a busy road. "
I've never seen it, even though I've lived nearby for 29 years (though I don't drive Speedway very often). I tend not to pay attention to the cemetery.
I have to say, I don't have a lot of sympathy for those who wish to hide this issue under the rug. Support the right to an abortion, fine, but at least acknowledge the reality of what is happening. That acknowledgment is healthy.
If you ask me "how can I feel more alive?" I'd parrot Martin Heidegger, "spend more time in graveyards."
until you've had sex in a graveyard at midnight.. You're NOT as freaky as gilbar. just saying
"The statute is invading my field of view. I and a million others have had it imposed on us. If you want it only seen in private, you don't put it by the side of the road."
Ann Triggered.
Wow. Just wow.
"Independent art created or staged in or near the public realm (for example, graffiti, street art) lacks official or tangible public sanction has not been recognized as part of the public art genre..."
So not public art. Thanks for playing.
"The statute is invading my field of view. I and a million others have had it imposed on us."
The statue is "invading"? Really? Then stop looking at it. You know where it is, go a different way if you can't control yourself.
You don't really think that other people have a responsibility to make sure you're not inconvenienced by seeing something you don't like, do you? Do you insist your neighbors get your approval before they begin any projects on their property that would be visible from the street?
"Nobody is forcing you to participate..."
Wrong.
I think it's more that they are trying to send a message to the general public that you'll be deeply troubled if you abort a child. It's like those billboards that say things like "Abortion stops a beating heart." It's advertising an opinion.
I'm not a doctor but I'd wager good money that is advertising a fact, at least in most cases...
..but I certainly support the first idea they are forcing your participation. That's the intent- to agitate, to annoy, to give you the old Cass Sunstein 'Nudge'. While the artist prolly comnsiders it a success I say 'bad art!'...
Not reallly a penis though, is it? I mean you could call any structure that's taller than it is wide a penis or phallic like. But it isn't. More like a spire. An upside down icecicle. Or a huge waste of rock. I'm sure to some people it is interesting.
Went to the Madison Public Art website and as I expected most of the art is what you'd expect from a college town. Earnest, but not very good. The reclining man done in three slabs was pretty good. I'd cross the street to see that.
It takes a lot of talent to take some scrap steel and a arc welder and construct something artistic. Ubfortunately I didn't see any of that in the Madison website. Niether art nor skill.
With a little luck there will be another ice age and all that will disappear under a mile of glacier.
"Abortion stops a beating heart." It's advertising an opinion.
mmm. It's kinda a fact. No matter what point you decide to do it, it is alive and you're killing it. It either exists or it doesn't.
"Chamberlain Rock in Exile".
I realize it's Madison and cheap shots feel good, but…
So Rocketeer self-identifies as a pretentious snob. You are what you are, sonny. In the small town to which I retired I doubt any of my neighbors have the slightest idea who Martin Heidegger was. They don’t do grievance politics or the politics of resentment, but they helped me shovel my driveway when the snow was too wet and heavy for my snow blower to handle, a neighbor helped me replace my outdoors light fixtures, and they have provided other support when I needed it. And I’ve used my snowblower to clear their sidewalks and driveways when I could, especially for the guy who’s a lineman for the power company and has to head out well before the snow stopped to help restore power in rural areas. We know about the neighbor with PTSD and he’s too polite to complain if we set off our own fireworks, but we refrain anyway. When we saw the ambulance at the house where three generations lived, and the gurney coming out with the grandmother’s head covered, our wives started cooking casseroles right away. Go ahead and sneer, but any one of them is worth several hundred of you.
I think it's more that they are trying to send a message to the general public that you'll be deeply troubled if you abort a child.
And apparently many are. Perhaps even the hardest of hardcore feminists might talk to women on the other side of the issue? The strange thing about human beings, is that many of us are … human.
I would have to go with The University of Wisconsin- Madison. While it may have started out as innovative performance art, it has become politicized, and we all know what effect that has on art.
r/madisonwi is a ridiculously preening sub-reddit, although I agree with their takes on the GoFundMes for Short Stack and CoCoVaa.
Public Art eventually fades into the background, just like the beeps trucks/delivery vans make when they back up. You get used to everything and stop noticing it.
"Go ahead and sneer, but any one of them is worth several hundred of you."
See, here's the thing, Big Mike: you're the one sneering. We likely agree, politically and philosophically, but you're a big ol' ball of anger over a pretty well known quote, and I'm not. The assumptions you make are breathtaking. You retired to a small town, I was born in one and still live in one. I'm happy to help my neighbors, even the sorehead, and they're happy to help me - except for the sorehead. I don't like Heidegger, but I can quote and recognize quotes not just from people I like, but also a whole bunch of folks who I not only don't like, but find repugnant.
That doesn't make me a pretentious snob. It's just evidence I pay attention.
"To clarify that comment: Now that they are reminded that abortion is actually about killing a baby, they don't like it."
I would say that a lot of people are OK with killing babies. It's just a clump of cells. What they find disturbing about this statuary is the reminder that what has been destroyed is an entire, years-long human journey, from baby, to little girl in a dress, hugging her parents, to big girl playing in the schoolyard, to troubled prepubescent girl getting her tits cut off and taking poison so she can grow a beard. When they realize that the "clump of cells" could have been allowed to grow much larger before they blighted its existence with their abject hatred for everything living, they get a bit testy. "OK, maybe we should have waited longer before we destroyed this life. We're only human. We're doing the worst we can".
So what is "Flayed Bucky"? That certainly sounds Madisonian.
"If that statue were intended for private sanctuary, it should have been sited differently."
I don't recall you expressing much concern about where they sited all those plywood paintings of Saint Floyd.
A Human that never gets to live their life.
Righteousness!
But that statue? Disgusting.
And it makes them so mad.
I suggest a papoose parade (PP) in a public spectacle, which will celebrate the evolution of human dignity, agency, and love of a woman and man for their child. It will complement a pride parade that celebrates lions, lionesses, and their unPlanned cubs playing in gay revelry on the African savanna.
Couldn't care less about public art in Madison, but it was funny seeing this in the comments: "I'd parrot Martin Heidegger, 'spend more time in graveyards.'"
It is Madison, and so I suppose there is nothing odd about someone's coming up with a Heidegger quote like that on a subject like this. Heidegger was raised Catholic but ended up on Team Nazi. On the subject of abortion, those two sides of his make-up were unlikely to reach agreement. But the point of his quotation was that the reality of death makes one more acutely aware that one's being and time are limited, so better to focus one's being on authenticity rather than the silly stuff.
Never been a fan of Heidegger myself, and even less his painfully (perhaps intentionally) obtuse writing. But each to his own.
"...in public view. ... my field of view"
Not 'your' field of view any more than a corner in downtown Madison is and I seem to recall you didn't mind all sorts of private art impeding your view there.
You even gushed.
Un*ucking believable.
An adult woman “triggered” by “The statute is invading my field of view”.
Get over yourself and grow up.
It takes you what? 2 seconds at most to drive by that statue?
Are you as triggered by men wearing shorts that you have to drive by?
Personally, it makes me happy that you are visually assaulted by and made uncomfortable by the statue that reminds people that ABORTION KILLS A HUMAN BEING!
I didn’t know the statue was intended to be about abortion until today, but I’ve disliked it for years just because I considered it bad art. It’s maudlin and unsubtle. The dead child is transparent like a ghost. I think ghost imagery in a graveyard is in poor taste.
The statute is invading my field of view. I and a million others have had it imposed on us.
Well, that's one way to look it.
Arrogant, clueless and selfish to the feelings of those who've lost their children. But, it is another way to look at it.
Often times, people think you're trolling your readers. Other times, you're, well, just not a very nice person.
I'll let others decide which is the case here.
Ghost Sculptures Of WW1 Soldiers Erected In An Old English Cemetery
https://designyoutrust.com/2019/08/ghost-sculptures-of-ww1-soldiers-erected-in-an-old-english-cemetery/
"maudlin and unsubtle"
maudlin ADJECTIVE
self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness:
Tearfully sentimental I'll give you, not so much self-pitying and certainly not with drunkenness.
It was so unsubtle you didn't get the message for years until you were informed of it.
"The dead child is transparent like a ghost. I think ghost imagery in a graveyard is in poor taste."
Plywood murals instead, perhaps?
@Rocketeer, you must live in a college town if anyone other than you has even heard of Heidegger. I really don't care whether the quote is his most famous or least famous or is utterly misquoted -- it's as pretentious as if I dropped a comment about Cantor diagonalization into a discussion. Much as I was fascinated when I was exposed to diagonalization arguments, it's kind of silly to drop Cantor's name into a normal discussion, though IMO probably not as silly as name-dropping Heidegger.
gilbar said...
"If you ask me 'how can I feel more alive?' I'd parrot Martin Heidegger, 'spend more time in graveyards.'
Until you've had sex in a graveyard at midnight.. You're NOT as freaky as gilbar. just saying."
Yeah, but were you quoting Heidegger while you were doing it?
Were the plywood paintings in broken windows preserved somewhere for posterity to ponder? Because those were the most appalling artworks in Madison, at the time. Chalk outlines of looters on storefront sidewalks would have been much more appropriate.
"Way too many people bring up the "footballs penis" and need to be told that was excised."
Ouch!
It took me a few minutes but now at least I know what "Flayed Bucky" looks like (he's in the penultimate row on the page).
https://buckyonparade.com/find-bucky/where-are-they-now/
Ann Althouse said...
"I think it's more that they are trying to send a message to the general public that you'll be deeply troubled if you abort a child. It's like those billboards that say things like "Abortion stops a beating heart." It's advertising an opinion."
Are you in favor of silencing that opinion?
"Are you in favor of silencing that opinion?"
You've been commenting on this blog for a long time, so why are you asking such a stupid question? You know the answer.
Who is forcing you to participate in what, Althouse? You made a mistake between the very clear distinction between public art, defined by taxpayers having to subsidize it, and a private memorial self-funded on private land.
So if you don't like it, avert your eyes. I can't imagine why this bothers you so much while the stupid shop owners begging for mercy post-riot by "decorating" the damage done to their hard-earned businesses by mobs and yobs were just adorable to you.
Imagine if a mob destroyed your beautiful gardens and home because you profit from a capitalist academic system that has impoverished generations of students. Would you just fearfully and submissively spray paint crude pictures of flowers where your real flowers bloomed? Because that's the submission you praised when enacted by others.
You know nothing about the love and mercy delivered to countless women by Project Rachel. Maybe you should learn something about it before you claim it is imposing on you. Repenting for abortion and receiving grace and healing is a reproductive choice too. You support reproductive choice, right?
And what do you think of Pride Parades, Planned Parenthood advertising, yadda, yadda, yadda? I sometimes get those ads on your blog. Your words lead advertisers to platform them. I ignore them. You didn't put them there.
Do the abortion clinics in Madison promote a view? Why, yes they do. Why are you so angry about this? I could understand Expressing pain if you lost a child, but you're just complaining that people with views other than yours doing exactly what people with whom you agree are always doing: promoting their opinion.
Project Rachel is, in fact, a free and deeply private service provided to women in distress. And there is plenty of statistical evidence that many women regret their abortions. That's their choice, not yours to shove back into the closet because it bothers you. They also provide financial support, counseling, trained doulas and after-birth support to assist women. They do not protest at abortion clinics.
If you don't know what they do, perhaps you should find out before expressing such personal and incoherent outrage. I know women whose lives were saved by Project Rachel. And you are indeed expressing emotional opposition to their right to free expression by saying they are burdening you. There is no such burden, but hey, have at it in the courts. You will lose.
“Support for the arts -- merde! A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore!”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
I don't agree 100%. But it's close.
" Now that I know it's a "memorial" against abortion I don't like it anymore."
"... I’ve disliked it for years just because I considered it bad art."
Worthy of a "just the same" award from the POTUS Press Secretary.
Rocco said...
Yeah, but were you quoting Heidegger while you were doing it?
i don't Even Know, who Heidegger IS !
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