Sam Durant’s “Scaffold” is being disassembled by the Walker Art Center because it offends people. Image credit: ANTHONY SOUFFLE
- Are these the world’s best outdoor sculpture parks? I have a hard time lumping the Brooklyn Bridge Park in this list. [CNN]
- The Walker Art Center is dismantling a sculpture by Sam Durant after protests. “Scaffold” is a composite of seven different gallows used in executions in the United States between 1859 and 2006 (this article doesn’t make that fact particularly clear) and is intended to spark discussion about the history of capital punishment in this country. Activists from the Dakota community called for its destruction because one of the reference gallows Durant based the piece on was used to execute 38 Dakota Indians in 1862 and say the artwork trivializes genocide. I’m not entirely clear on why this is “trivializing”. If the sculpture was supposed to provoke discussion about the history of executions in America, it seems to be effective. Can we stop knee-jerk calling for the censorship of any artwork we might find any moral grounds to oppose? Otherwise we’re going to be left with nothing in museums/public spaces other than Jeff Koons balloon dogs. [Star Tribune]
- The “Fearless Girl”/”Charging Bull” drama never ends. Alex Gardega has added “Pissing Pug” to the menagerie, urinating on the girl’s leg to demonstrate that adding another component to an existing sculpture distorts to original’s meaning. We get it. Let’s move on. [New York Post]
- Speaking of dumb ideas, Comedian Kathy Griffin is in hot water because she posed for a video holding Donald Trump’s decapitated head. What passes for conversation in the media really needs to change. [The Internet]
- Anne Imhof, whose much lauded four hour long opera “Faust” on view at The Venice Biennale’s German Pavillion is still be discussed, tells a crowd at the Serpentine Gallery that her influences include Michelangelo and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I would have guessed Adidas. (Though in fairness, she does say the health-goth cast plays themselves.) [ARTnews]
- We’ve all had some pretty weird homework in art school, but this might take the cake.Katie Martin-Meurer, a University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee art professor, challenged her students to make biodegradable insect motels. The idea is they’ll end up in parks, decomposing, rather than filling a dumpster with foamcore like most student projects. [NPR]
- Google Street View is adding a host of new features to its museum interior tours. Soon you’ll be able to read wall text, zoom into high-res images, and more. How long until there’s a selfie-taking function? [Time]
- Audible has created a 5 million dollar fund for playwrights. This seems like a very good thing. [The New York Times]
- Uh oh, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento has a failing humidity control system that’s threatening the preservation of numerous objects on view. If the museum and contractors who installed the system can’t get a replacement up and running to specifications, the Crocker could lose accreditation to host certain exhibitions. Tuesday night, city officials approved a plan to fix the system, so hopefully all will be resolved. [CBS Sacramento]
