Weird street art near Franklin

It just occurred to me – shouldn’t they be charging the “artist” (to use the term loosely) a fee for leasing the land upon which his “art” (to use the term loosely) is being publicly exhibited?

Once you get past how much money is being wasted on this sort of thing around town, this sculpure actually looks quite good

Unlike the monstrosity which has been forced onto the residents of Weston Creek. It truly must be the worst street in Canberra, possibly even Australia. I’ve seen primary school kids produce more profound pieces

I’d send in a picture, except it would mean getting close to it. And everytime I get too close i want to vomit and am filled with such collossal anger I’m tempted to hire a hummer or truck and mow the sculpture down. Luckily I’m a law abiding citizen so won’t follow through, but others might

I like it. She’s waiting at the bus-stop to greet the alighting passengers with flowers. That is a charming thing.

Now, if only they could just install some type of ‘school of fish’ sculpture / metal thingy at the Platform 8 skate park in Civic and at the Gungahlin pedestrojamatorium, and make the Gungahlin buses a fair bit more frequent, then we passengers wouldn’t all feel the artistic need twice a day to pretend to be asphyxiating standing sardines for those long stop-start trips up and down Flemington Rd and Northborne Avenue.

There should be art on every corner of every street (well Avenue perhaps) in Canberra.

The art works should be diverse and attract comment and debate.

I for one am proud to live in a city that invests (including my taxes to) in public art. I don’t like some of it and that’s fine, because it’s not about me.

Mothy said :

There’s another one just like it in Civic, keeping watch over the Merry Go Round.

I thought I saw a family resemblance.

Mysteryman said :

It’s been a while since I vented about public art…

I’ve given up on trying to understand what the government is hoping to achieve with this garbage. Do they really think that dotting the city with a random, haphazard collection of junk is going to somehow make Canberra more “vibrant” or “exciting”? Many of these pieces of art (and I use the term loosely) are situation right next to roads, where there is little pedestrian access or activity. While I like the fact that poor placement probably means that fewer people are visually assaulted by these creations, it compounds the feeling that the money spent on each piece has been wasted. I think it’s served to make Canberra look more like a poorly thought out imitation of what a vibrant, creative city should look like.

/end rant.

I should also say that I like art generally. I just think this whole program is poorly planned and implemented.

+1

I first noticed the troll on 20th March. Drove past and saw that someone had taped a liquor bottle to her hand. It kind of suited her. Perhaps she will show us some of her other past times in coming months.

Ado said :

HenryBG said :

pepmeup said :

What did this cost us? I like the public art in the city and at local shops, where people can interact with the art. But this plus the steel grass and coppers logs on the GDE plus the goldfish one down south, plus the owl at Belconnen Markets. What has it all cost? what else could we do with the money?

I *do* have a soft spot for the sheep outside Kambah shops, especially the way they periodically get “decorated”.

Sorry for hijacking a bit here, but what is going on with the orange …thing… on the Drakeford Drive median strip?

See the seperate “Gold Fish” thread.

Looks like something out of a bad dream. I quickly canvassed the following opinions on that one:

“It would be better to have a park to play on than a stupid-looking thing that doesn’t do anything. Mummy almost crashed the car when she saw it”, Anon. 8 Years.
“It’s cool. Mummy nearly had a car crash when she saw it”, Anon. 11 years.
“It looks dumb and makes no sense whatsoever”, Anon. teenager.

HenryBG said :

pepmeup said :

What did this cost us? I like the public art in the city and at local shops, where people can interact with the art. But this plus the steel grass and coppers logs on the GDE plus the goldfish one down south, plus the owl at Belconnen Markets. What has it all cost? what else could we do with the money?

I *do* have a soft spot for the sheep outside Kambah shops, especially the way they periodically get “decorated”.

Sorry for hijacking a bit here, but what is going on with the orange …thing… on the Drakeford Drive median strip?

On the whole I don`t mind the public art but this (and the owl) just looks so out of place in its surroundings. As schmeah said a sh1t load of trees would look much better.

I think it should only be called “public art” when the public has actually had a say in it.

“Lady with Flowers Standing on Top of a Septic Tank” would be a more appropriate title for this.

They need to stop now …… no, seriously……. just stop.