The Cardiff Kook in San Diego
June 3, 2011It seems every few months there is a new work of art that is said to cause outrage due to its profanity and conservative groups usually end up demanding its removal. Usually it is something religious combined with a violent or sexual act. When I hear these stories I think it is really pathetic. It is a cliche and very predictable. It has been played out so many times I wonder why in the world anyone is outraged any more than another bad sitcom on TV.
However sometimes there are pieces of art which actually does anger people when someone is trying to make legitimate art instead of political propaganda. One of these times is very close to where I live in Cardiff, CA. It is in the North County in San Diego and I actually run by this beach on a regular basis. It is the statue of a surfer (see video below). Technically there is nothing wrong with the anatomy or proportion yet it inspires such anger that it is constantly vandalized. I used the word vandalized loosely, in that people dress up the statue in outfits ranging from a ballerina to Osama Bin Laden (no joke!).
So why the outrage? The problem with the piece is that it attempts to describe something that is happening or a moment in time versus force behind it. For instance when I used to surf and watch the people that did surf what I felt was a sense of freedom. So if this was my commission I would be asking myself how do I use the image of a surfer to show freedom and I would make sketch after sketch to find this emotion. The piece would match what surfers felt. Instead this artist tried to describe someone surfing and the emotional impact was left behind. So it ended up being a surfer falling down without much power or force behind it. It does not match the way a surfer actually feels and hence the outrage.
I believe it is fine to show a story in piece of sculpture, but the emotion behind it must come first. Everything else is just decoration.
