Controversial public art -- just nude or crude?

KOMONews.com ^ | 06/24/09 | Ray Lane

[Renderofveils]

It’s just plain UGLY. It’s a dark, sad, disturbing piece. I could not call this art

All art should be joyous, uplifting and beautiful? Some of my favorite pieces of art are the ones that make me think... and some of them are quite dark (in tone, if not palette.) Caspar Friedrich's The Sea of Ice (or Death of Hope as it is sometimes referred) is an immensely sad, dark and disturbing piece, so is it not art?

[Renderofveils]

Er, The Wreck of Hope. I figured I'd correct myself before someone else did. ;)

[a fool in paradise]

Will it eventually be installed in an alley located in the New Orleans French Quarter during Mardi Gras?

[ByteMercenary]

I am pretty sure that my three teen-aged sons see better racks at HS. Insert the old saw about ‘they didn’t build ‘em like that when I was in HS’. Maybe they did, maybe not. But the showcase is sure different today.

[sniper63]

Is it slated to become a water fountain?

[Just another Joe]

Is it slated to become a water fountain?

Well, being a male, I don't usually squat to do that but I see your point.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

She looks like she’s contemplating why she squatted to poop when there was an empty stall just over there on the right.

she has that constipated look.....

[ArrogantBustard]

Here I squat,
Broken hearted.
Tried to ...

[Minn]

It is not even a natural pose.

Except for the naked part, women mostly squat in public to tend to their young children. I've never myself even noticed that some of them look real good when they do it. But I heard that somewhere.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Is that one sheet Sheryl Crow, I ask....?

[AngelesCrestHighway]

South East Asian women squat like that all the time....It looks un-natural for her.

[newheart]

I could not agree with you more. ‘Dark’ art, even that which attempts to express the hopelessness of the human condition, can be profound, providing a contrast that illuminates the genuine hope that exists. Even when it is not the intent of the artist.

Every picture has its shadows, and it has some source of light. (Joni Mitchell)

[Jewbacca]

“It is not even a natural pose.”

It’s called the “third world squat.”

In the first world where we have chairs and resulting stiff hamstrings, it’s not so common, unless you are in the Army or install floor tile for a living.

In the third world, where you don’t have chairs, and the only thing you dare let touch the ground is the bottom of your feet, this is the natural position. It’s hard for westerners to do it, but eventually you master sitting in this position (heels down) and can do so for hours at a time.

I learned it in the military, and used it in a survival school setting.

[lormand]

I'm taking Tang Soo Do, and am in the process of stretching most everything.

I will have to work on stretching for this "squat" Any special tips on doing so?

[flash2368]

“My 8 year old doesn’t need to be exposed to it. I don’t even want my 14-year-old son to be exposed to it.”

Thats it.. shield them from everything so they go nutso when faced with the real world. Very few Europeans would give a second thought about their kids being exposed to it. They would probably be climbing all over the thing. Matter of fact non-repressive attitude about sexuality is probably the reason the teenage pregnancy rate in other countries is zip compared to the U.S. Besides that I see nothing disturbing about the sculpture except for the fact its butt ugly. Certainly nothing erotic about it.

[mysterio]

I'm honestly tired of hearing people flip out over a human breast. We gave the fcc MASSIVE amounts of power because of one tit during a football game. That breast injured no one. The overreaction to it injured a lot of people.

We all have breasts. Almost all little kids have had intimate contact with a breast. Almost all men want intimate contact with a breast. It's a human body part.

[Jewbacca]

I learned with an Israeli Druze screaming at me, pretending to be a Hamas terrorists, and periodically hitting me with an AK-47, as I tried to keep from falling in donkey sh!t.

Worked pretty well.

(Or I suppose you could just do a front squat in a power rack if you are pussy. The weight will stretch your ham strings.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcZ-fS-X7k0

[ArrogantBustard]

I don’t see any sheets.

And she’s using her right hand.

Yuck.

[Redcloak]

Well... It's better than that Britney‑Spears‑giving‑birth‑on‑a‑bear‑skin‑rug sculpture from a few years back.

[Domandred]

I agree. Ugly.

Art is still lost