Tumbling Woman?
 

How does everyone feel about this most disturbing sculpture honoring WTC collapse?

I am absolutely horrified. I realize artists have freedom of expression, but I think that it is very distasteful. I am glad they're taking it down. There are so many better ways to keep those people and that day in remembrance.

Susan

I don't know
 

I don't know the work, but taste has never had much to do with art production.

I personally think that anyone doing anything extremely patriotic that has never done anything like this before is shameful. I see all the more commercially focused artists doing portraits of DC (for the first time) flags are in 1/2 the paintings sold today. That is in bad taste I think. You can't find an SUV that doesn't have a flag glued to it usually with a fish beside it. Those of us who have always owned flags find all these trends a bit suspect. Bandwagon behavior is distasteful to me.

But back to art; good art doesn't have to be shocking and shocking art doesn't have to be good. Most galleries that represent traditional representational art can't get the city paper to mention their exhibits. The shocking galleries get all the free write-ups. Thing is, it's the wild new galleries that still go bankrupt even with the free publicity.

Tim,

You can see the statue here: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/art...oman18-ON.html

Tumbling woman
 

The first time I saw this statue I was paralyzed with emotion. I never wanted to look at it again. The second time, I felt tremendous sorrow as as I stared at it, all the fear and all the vulnerability of this woman. The third time I looked at it I was angry, not at the artist who "made" me feel all these emotions, but at the terrorists who were responsible for the subject. I believe that art is meant to evoke emotions. Love-hate, serenity-discomfort, pain-pleasure,sorrow-elation. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. For every beautiful piece that stops you cold and takes your breath away, there will be art that horrifies and disgusts us. Unfortunately, this may not have been the time or place for this unveiling. Reminds me of Picasso's Guernica.

There's absolutely no doubt that the piece is incredibly disturbing. Anyone capable of viewing it at site without at least welling up with tears would be a stoic person indeed. I was in on the early footage on 9/11, showing the people jumping from the buildings and hitting the ground, before the networks and cable stations began to pull those scenes, and it was the horrible of horribles. (I was overseas at the time, so the cut-off of the graphic footage was a bit delayed, I suppose.)

I gather that many of the objections relate to the issues as to the naked representation of the woman, or the horrendously inexplicable circumstance visited upon her, one that people don't wish to be reminded of. "Let's get those picket fences whitewashed!"

I've been several times to the Vietnam Memorial on the Washington mall, and the guys in camouflage fatigues, placing letters and flowers and unopened beer bottles and medals and crying their hearts out, are at Maya Lin's artistic creation that at one time one of the project's art commissioners labeled a "black gash of shame." That the designer was of Asian descent had obvious effect in such judgments. I've never yet seen anyone walk up to the much "neater and cleaner" (no names of dead, no body parts, no written letters) statues of the soldiers coming out of the rain forest, and express the same kinds of emotions displayed in the reflections of that brutally cold black wall engraved with the names of 50,000 dead, that "shameful" monument despised by the few -- nay the one. What a tribute that wall has become for Lin's vision, and against the deficit of vision in that one and his council.

The sculpture is horrific, as was the event. I know I'll take heat by saying that I think it's a useful counterpoint to the portrayal of all the professional heroes whose nobility is being rightly honored in the aftermath of this tragedy. Surely hundreds of civilian, nonprofessional heroes unsung also perished in the collapse of the Towers. Hundreds more perished not wanting anything more heroic in their lives other than going home to their families again. Where now are their statues and portraits, the reminders of what they endured? Perhaps this one was intended to remind us of how incredibly inhuman -- and at the same time, certainly human -- was this exacted retribution for perceived wrongs. Shall we pretend that no one leapt from those Towers, in the face of that terror? And that no artists were moved by that profound event?

I'm not sure how this discussion fits into a portrait artists' site, but isn't it too serious a subject for anti-SUV campaigns right out of the gate? I think the guys at CarTalk are covering that. My Tahoe is back in the shed for another year and I'm riding a motorcycle -- a suicide wish, if ever there was one -- in Taipei. My SUV in storage doesn't have an American flag sticker in the window (though one flies from my deck in the midwest, and has for years), but it does have a Boy Scouts of America decal (it's hauled a lot of Scouts and camp gear over the years) and county, state, and national park passes, a resident pass for the Cape Cod Tunnel (a joke.) It would have a sticker for Nude Beach Parking on the Cape, but my daughter -- then a very few miles distant from all the 9-11 events -- stole it for her Taurus.

Personally, I think those Taurus owners are the reason for the Middle East troubles and the decline in morals in this country, and I'm getting suspicious of drivers of "early year" Asian and Scandanavian models with all those "Save the Earth/Air/Children/Forests" types of bumper stickers holding them together and patching the rust spots.

Artists are starting to get my attention, too, and I think something should be done about them.

My point
 

My point stands very well w/o seeing the work. Thousands of artists are cashing in on a national tragedy. There are others cashing in on the new patriotism borne of the tragedy.

As to the "sculpture", it's so grobby and coarse how could anyone be offended by the nudity? I imagine the "artist" had enough trouble with the blobs called a figure and sure didn't want to try to "sculpt" fabric. This was not the Peita'.

It's the easiest thing in the world to evoke an emotional response...it's an animal thing. Depict a recent tragic event and you've got a response. In movies they can place a child in danger and get an easy emotional response. Cheap trick-bad form.

I looked at this page earlier tonite, and decided not to reply. I turned off the computer and went off to do some sewing and then had to come back to it to give my opinion. The longer I thought about it the more annoyed I got that someone would represent the victims in this way. I hope the sculptor didn't get paid for it.

Cheap, grubby, tasteless, cashing in. I don't have enough adjectives to describe my opinion, not of the workmanship, which is good, but of the image.

On second thoughts, if it had no explanation, no label, would anyone even realise what was being portrayed? If it was displayed unlabelled, or let's say archaeologists excavated it, in three thousand years time, what would it represent? Perhaps some kind of gymnastic exercise.

I watched the coverage of this event with horror, the same as everyone else. I did not see naked overweight middle aged women falling and tumbling. I saw tiny clothed unidentifiable shapes. (presumably both men & women) How demeaning of the artist? to attempt to represent a body of people like that. Maybe the concept is too horrible to dwell on. If he wants to portray victims at point of death, what will his next pieces be?

Who needs that memorial? The victims' families and friends, I think not. The rest of the world? We won't forget!

The enduring image that stays in my mind is the crowds of people with photos of their loved ones. I also saw a documentary on the retrieval and resurrection of the Kurnig sculpture which stood in the WTC courtyard. I think that is an appropriate memorial for all the victims.

Maybe the sculptor should put his/her skills to better use by getting involved in making portraits of the victims for their families. That would be useful.

I can't imagine a time when that particular sculpture would be acceptable.

Quick! Find a tree and a rope!
 

I can't believe the response to Eric Fischle's sculpture could bring out so much vehemence and anger among fellow artists. I have yet to read anything indicating the circumstances under which the artist undertook this project and, unless something has been disclosed to indicate otherwise, am disappointed that his own community is so quick to hang or stone him. Why assume his sculpture was done for other than the best intentions? I would be very careful about reducing his effort to shallow flag-waving and "cashing in."

On the other hand I will say that I have no idea what approach I would have taken and though wouldn't have ruled out a reminder of the horror of it all, I don't think this piece was very successful in doing that. What significance is there to a nude leaping from a burning and collapsing building and the positioning of the figure looks more like a bad floor exercise. Or worse.

Bad taste is always inexplicable!