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News & ArtsSaturday, January 31, 2009
Arts Gone for Good
Posted by Charles Mudede on Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 11:46 AM
The shoe statue is no more.
A sculpture of a shoe erected in Iraq to honour a journalist who threw his footwear at George W Bush has been dismantled, reports say. Foreign media say the bronze-coloured fibre-glass shoe was removed from its site in the city of Tikrit on the orders of the local authorities. It had been erected in the grounds of an orphanage.
The monument was reportedly taken down just a day after being unveiled in the late Saddam Hussein's home town.
The head of the Childhood organisation, which owns the orphanage, said she had been told to remove the monument immediately by the Salaheddin Provincial Joint Coordination Centre. "I did take the shoe down immediately and destroyed it, and I did not ask why," Shahah Daham told the German news agency DPA.
Salaheddin's deputy governor, Abdullah Jabara, told DPA: "Children should be put away from any political-related issues. Since this is an orphanage, this monument can instil in children's heart things for which the time is not now."
Though I agree with the dismantling of the sculpture, my reasons are not the same as the ones expressed by the deputy governor.
2
Big items as sculpture are old hat. They're old hat and boots. I'd throw in that SE Seattle collage of a dreamsicle, a mortarbaord, etc. showing the immigrant experience. A big eraser on a lawn, big yawn. Big plasticy representational things, yawn.
You see it the first time and it's interesting for about 20 seconds. You don't really want this stuff hanging around permanently to look at for the next 100 years -- the way you do with real art.
Cut up fighter jet same thing. I see it, I get it, we don't like the military. Noted. I don't really want to have to look at it for the next 40 years everytime I take the subway.
In the end it's just not good art. It's shallow, there's no mystery, there's no wonder.
Unlike real art.
You see it the first time and it's interesting for about 20 seconds. You don't really want this stuff hanging around permanently to look at for the next 100 years -- the way you do with real art.
Cut up fighter jet same thing. I see it, I get it, we don't like the military. Noted. I don't really want to have to look at it for the next 40 years everytime I take the subway.
In the end it's just not good art. It's shallow, there's no mystery, there's no wonder.
Unlike real art.
4
Meanwhile, free and fair elections are being hailed as a great success in Iraq, thanks to the intended target of that shoe toss.
5
@4, it seems the Iraqis have missed the point of freedom though, what with the whole "Take down that sculpture or else" order from the deputy governor. Pay attention to the response from the head of the orphanage. It's clear he expected to be imprisoned and tortured if he did not comply.
So Charles, if you don't agree with the reason given for the dismantling of the statue, then it begs the question, why did you want it taken down?
So Charles, if you don't agree with the reason given for the dismantling of the statue, then it begs the question, why did you want it taken down?
6
Yes Charles, please elaborate on your hatred of free speech. Unless you are too much of a fucking coward to respond, which I suspect will prove to be the case.
9
@1 - nah, we're buying the P-I Globe.
Hey, how come our troops are still spending our tax dollars there anyway? Shouldn't they be HOME?
Hey, how come our troops are still spending our tax dollars there anyway? Shouldn't they be HOME?
13
Charles--- looks like the end of your post was cut off, buddy.
Nobody knows your reasons.
Please finish it and talk to those goddamn editors about messing with your posts!
Nobody knows your reasons.
Please finish it and talk to those goddamn editors about messing with your posts!
15
Providing space for this statue on public land might be as disrespectful as putting a plaque near the site of the Boston Tea Party or commemorating illegal marching in Selma in 1965.
I did like that they placed a bush in the sculpture, and that "Those orphans who helped the sculptor in building this monument were the victims of Bush's war," al-Naseri [the orphanage director] was quoted as saying. "The shoe monument is a gift to the next generation to remember the heroic action by the journalist."
(from www.upi.com -- who knew UPI still existed?)
I did like that they placed a bush in the sculpture, and that "Those orphans who helped the sculptor in building this monument were the victims of Bush's war," al-Naseri [the orphanage director] was quoted as saying. "The shoe monument is a gift to the next generation to remember the heroic action by the journalist."
(from www.upi.com -- who knew UPI still existed?)
16
@14--the point of my sarcasm is that Charles is a lazy blogger. Incomplete "thoughts" and sloppy arguments are his norm.
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