Believe it or not, this is actually a statue, which was placed in the grounds of a Massachusetts college in order to promote "unexpected new ideas" in the viewers, prior to a display of the artists works.... I bet it did. In fact according to reports those new ideas included 'feelings of apprehension' and of 'fear' amongst some of the female student body.
That aside, I am amazed at how lifelike it is - is it wax, or wood, or plastic, the reports that I saw didn't say, but if someone plonked that in my front garden I'd be calling the police.
Apparently many hundreds signed a petition asking for its removal .... I can understand why.
Its a strange old world.
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| Life Like Statue ...Too Life Like For Some |
That aside, I am amazed at how lifelike it is - is it wax, or wood, or plastic, the reports that I saw didn't say, but if someone plonked that in my front garden I'd be calling the police.
Apparently many hundreds signed a petition asking for its removal .... I can understand why.
Its a strange old world.
Wow, that does look really lifelike! I appreciate lifelike art more than abstract, it takes real skill. The subject of this piece though, along with it's location is cause for concern, I wouldn't be surprised if, at best it wastes a lot of people's time as they work out if someone's in distress or not and at worse, it causes some accidents.
ReplyDeleteIts kinda like a zombie attack ....
DeletePerhaps, like a lot of good work, an ideal location would be somewhere where it wouldn't be noticed, such as on a park bench. A person would appear to be consulting their touch-tablet or eating their sandwiches but actually be a sculpture. I'm having doubts about that person opposite me right now, he hasn't moved in a while!?
DeleteMacabre ... Oddly of course, the more lifelike the better for the ancients of Greece and Rome. So they would have really appreciated this artist.
Deleteand the Chinese didn't paint the eyes on their dragons - just in case.
DeleteIs that true? I mean the Dragon's eyes thing? On the web they all seem to have eyes showing.
DeleteOld Chinese Legend.
DeleteA legendary painter, Zhang commanded great respect from both the Emperor and commoners. He loved to paint animals, flowers, mountains, and rivers. Outside of his house he painted a vulture on one side and a hawk on another. His paintings were so vividly alive that birds were too scared to build nests around the house.
Once, monks from the Anle Temple in the southern city of Nanjing invited him to paint dragons on the temple wall. People heard this news and came to watch this famous artist paint. In a short time, Zhang painted four lifelike dragons with his magical brush. But people quickly discovered that the dragons did not have eyes. They all wondered why.
Zhang explained, "The dragons' eyes hold their spirits, without which their bodies are merely physical things. If I paint their eyes, they would fly away." The on-lookers shook their heads in disbelief.
Zhang breathed out a sigh, and took up his brush. He quickly painted eyes on two of the dragons. Suddenly, the sky darkened, thunder roared, and rain came down hard. The two dragons that had painted eyes broke through the wall and flew swiftly heavenward with a thunderbolt.
Watching all of this, the people turned speechless. The sky quickly brightened up again, and on the temple wall were left two dragons without painted eyes.
Generations have passed and some people still believe the eyed dragons under Zhang Sengyou's brush did become alive. Regardless, this story has given birth to the expression "paint the dragons' eyes," which refers to vivid spirit portrayed skillfully in artistic work.