Thursday, April 03, 2008

Wanted : Device to Root Out Stupid


According to a few local residents, a public park at the foot of Bute St. in Vancouver is evidently no place for a Device to Root Out Evil.
Well, obviously. A device to root out overly sensitive meddlesome Jeebus thumpers should have been installed there first.
The decision to remove the 25' steel, aluminum, and Venetian glass sculpture after 2 1/2 years was approved unanimously by Vancouver Park Board commissioners.
Artist Dennis Oppenheim "has denied any anti-religious design to his sculpture.
"Pointing a steeple into the ground directs it to hell as opposed to heaven," he told one interviewer. "It's a very simple gesture."
The Park Board should have responded to the complaints with an even simpler one.

3 comments:

West End Bob said...

Damn! That's the only chapel I've been impressed with in years . . . .

Chris said...

I love that sculpture. I always interpreted it as symbolizing the way unchecked development has turned communities on their heads.

But if the religious types want to read into too, I guess they are allowed.

Alison said...

I really like it too and in its current location it seems to interpret differently depending on whether you view it with the city or the north shore as a backdrop.
Hope it finds a new home somewhere in Vancouver.

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