That's one hell of a giant cook.

*cock

That's been down on Alaskan for a while, hasn't it? When the water's flowing, it encloses both of them; I always thought of it as ephemeral-but-constantly-renewing bars keeping the two figures apart.

Water shortage?

More money than taste.

Impromptu visit by the Chief Justice?

Just like in the ancient past, they have to dance 3 feet apart.

it means that seattle will be the next city hit by the mighty hand of our lard jesus. you can laugh now, but when our saviour strikes down with His mighty hand and destroys your "520" and "viaduct", you will see what His wrath can wreak.

One of the traffic cones seems to have a glandular disorder, as well.

They better not be messing with this installation. This breaks my heart every time I see it in person.

It wasn't really "unveiled" - it's been up for awhile - I think they were just doing some work to it.

It was a bit creepier earlier today when the father was looking at the bound son.

I'm sure John Ashcroft would tell you...

Attack of the Late-Career Mediocrities!

This would've turned me on when I was 10.

Christo must be in town.

junk art

of course, closer would be too queer, and you certainly don't want dad to have a real dick and balls

Seattle, still land of blue laws and prudes in charge of art

i'm sure it was those dirty, retarded mcdonalds workers creating more mess for the city to clean...

It means that SEATTLE PROMOTES CHILD RAPE! but now with a big traffic cone, too?

It means that representational art of human figures remains the easiest type of art to f*ck up, the creepiest when done badly.

Looks like some kinda NAMBLA display.

The zombies are rising?

It represents a world in which the traditional and preferred mother and father parent-structure has been replaced by various permutations, including single parent dad with weekend visitations who is broke due to excessive child support must greet his son naked as he cannot afford even the simplest of summerwear. I think the "take away" message is simply that in a world without Jesus in our hearts and minds, we continue to lose our behavioral and spiritual anchors to Lucifer and his preferences for broken and nontraditional families and eventually we will all stand naked before God in his infinite and wise judgement.

They aren't statues frozen in time and space, they are beacons. The rest of the world moves by too fast. Look at the loss and longing on their faces. What have we become? What have we become?

Dad should be holding his baby son

This two figure combo is full blown Victoriana, which even Queen Victoria would not have liked. She loved her Prince Albert and had a host of kids

Dan, oh I mean Dad, has a nice ass at least

At least it's not a giant roll of tape or something.

Hey Mister! Don't let that kid hug you!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_(1980)

The triumph of trash symbolism over taste. This might be the worst statuary I've ever seen.

No, wait, that's the cone.

I assume the bronze turds next to it are meant to represent crumpled-up Burger King bags?

Peepees no should touch.

ultimately, it means nothing.

All we are is bronze in the wind...

I'm surprised at how many people see creepy context to this art. Do you get a boner at Michaelangelo's David, too?

This piece is about the sad communication divide that almost always exists between fathers and sons, even in good relationships.

I dunno, maybe I'm the only one who sees it. Any other dads out there who also like this work?

ps- let me add that this installation can only be really appreciated when the fountains are running, because the whole point is that sometimes the father is reaching out to the son, but the son is unavailable, and some times it's the reverse.

pps- I've never disagreed with you so comprehensively, Fnarf. Oh and the "brown turds" are seats, right? And part of a separate installation.

i see money that should have been spent on social services, public transportation, and anything but that worthless stinking pit of elitist narcissism also known as the sculpture park.

we're a city on a hill, indeed...

I haven't seen the installation in person yet, but to me it speaks to the constant, and consistent need for one another. Just as water flows, children need adults they can look to for guidance, and in turn that child becomes an adult who can be that responsive adult in the life of another child.

It's the circle of life Simba...

@32,

What I find creepy about it is the horrible execution. When a father is reaching out to his child, he doesn't stand straight up with his arms sticking out awkwardly. If those statues in any way conveyed real human interaction and movement, it wouldn't be creepy at all.

10 Bitch, Bitch, moan, moan about public art one doesn't like
20 City removes art
30 Bitch, Bitch, moan, moan about lack of public art
40 City installs public art
50 Goto 10

It means two gorgeous nights in a row!! Look at that sky!

kesh- but isn't the awkward stance on the part of the Dad because he *can't* reach his son? And vice versa?

These pics really do a disservice to the work because it's not the same without the obfuscating water flow. This is not supposed to be a happy father/son piece of art, it's supposed to be at best a melancholy, and at worst deeply sad, look at familial failure.

Next we should get a statue saluting pedophilia of the hetero variety.

^c

@33 - So would you like a railroad stockyard instead, or an extended container port, a couple of wheat silos in lieu of the sculpture park? Or why not just find some lovely graffiti-covered walls and enjoy your proletarianism. Maybe you could move to Hoboken where such aestheticism would not be an issue to your "1984" sensibilities.

Um, it's not public art if it's privately funded.

@10 / Sven

Why is it heartbreaking? I don't understand the unavailability or what you're seeing -- but I'm interested.

@41, YES, YES, YES. If I had to choose, I'd take the wheat silos, as long as they were HUGE, but if I really had my druthers I'd want a steel plant there. Something that really represents human achievement. Not a crammed-in assortment of miscellaneous bad sculpture.

The orange traffic cone might be interesting if it was six times taller and had a cafe in it.

Oh, fer Chrissake, yes, Sven, we see it -- it's the most banal representation imaginable.

On a trip last year to Washington DC, we encountered the atrocious boy scout memorial. Link: http://www.deroux.com/images/washingtondc.jpg

On a trip last year to Washington DC, we encountered the atrocious boy scout memorial. Link: http://www.deroux.com/images/washingtondc.jpg
The Boy Scouts in the photo said they were disturbed also. Luckily none of them fell into the murky pond in front of it.

Fnarf, lots of people on this list, such as Non, evidently *haven't* seen it with the water flowing, which makes it a totally different installation.

"Banal" is one of those all purpose pejoratives, the inanimate equivilent of "douchebag." Boy, you and I don't often disagree, but when we do... uffda.

Non, the idea here is that usually one or both figures are obscured by a circular curtain of fountain jets. So you see the Dad, reaching out to his son who's behind a curtain of water. Then you get both curtains. Then you get just the son, but the Dad is behind a curtain of water. I don't remember if they're *ever* both visible, but if so it's rare, and the whole cycle takes ~1 hr so you spend many minutes with one or both figures obscured.

I *do* hate the giant traffic cone, though.

#31, as a matter of fact I do get a boner looking at Michelangelo's David. I'm sure he got one as well when he was carving the naughty bits. But what's your point? These statues are just really poorly done.

@38,

Maybe that was the idea, but I just don't see any tragedy or especially any humanity in it. I consider that to be a major failure on the artist's part. No representation of a human form should look that stiff and inhuman. If Bourgeois can't do better, then she shouldn't do it at all.

@41 - why, yes, i'd be fine with the railroad yard and wheat silos. if i had my druthers, i'd have instead designated the kalakala as the site of the olympic sculpture park, piled on all of the plop art and other worthless shit (including "bench" and "chair" and "box" and "traffic cone" and the other brilliant effluvia from the "art" world), set it out sailing on its maiden voyage into the middle of puget sound where anyone and everyone who wanted to could shoot flaming arrows at it viking-funeral-style until it sank to the bottom of the sound where it belongs.

and, for the record, the distopian world of 1984 seems to actually have been the petri dish from which atrocities like the olympic sculpture park were hatched. if you've ever been to the former soviet bloc, you'd notice they love their shitty public art - theirs was a tribute to the tyranny of communism - ours are a tribute to the tyranny of capitalism.

but that's ok.