I found a nice place in Frankston named McClelland Sculpture park. It is a pretty large outdoor area with grass and trees and even a little lake. All through this area many sculptures from different artists are placed. Some of them I liked more, some of them less, but there was one sculpture that puzzled me the most:
Click on the photo to enlarge.
I don’t know what exactly artist who made it wanted to express, but in me it evoked a feeling of horror because there were two things that don’t go together – children and torture. Mickey Mouse represents happiness, happy childhood, great toys and movies, and seeing him on this “electric” torture pedestal creates disharmony in your perceptions.
I think artist wanted to warn everybody that the happy childhood of our future generations is in danger. I am not arts expert, so it is only my opinion here, but while this sculpture may represent a “wake up call” for the adults, I certainly would not show it to children, because seeing their beloved character like that may cause them nightmares or other negative reactions.
And now I’ll switch to a completely different topic – photographing this work of art. You can, of course, take a documentary photo of it, which is just presenting it as it is without any additional concerns, but when I photographed it, I tried to convey the impression that I’ve got from it through my photographs. My tools were composition, which is the angle of the shot and decision what details have to be included in the shot (or left out), and post processing.
Click on the photo to enlarge.
I am presenting here two photos with different composition. I can’t decide which conveys my impression the best, because each of these two photos contributes to it.
In the post processing I converted the photos to black and white, enhancing the ominous feel, which reminds me of the horrible photos from concentration camps of WWII, and added vignetting to further “darken” the look and concentrate the viewer on the subject.
I’d really like to hear what do you have to say about this work of art, and how I captured it, and which photo do you like more. Your opinion is highly appreciated, and
Remember, you only have to enter your name to leave me a comment!
Till the next time,
Cheers!
Greg.
This is certainly a macabre piece. Yuck.
The second image reinforced my impression from the first image.
Crucifixion, Christ as an iconic image, i.e., Mickey Mouse?
The second image definitely spooked me out more!
Ellen
Crucifixion… didn’t think of that… well anyway it is really sick
Greg
First time visiting your excellent blog!
I’m grateful that we have the sensitivity and find that the Mickey Mouse sculpture disturbs us.
May there be enough kindness in human ‘kind’ to be resolved to fight against & stand up against insensitivity to torture, enslavement, & subject abhorrent child abuse. This artist may be very brave, or not, I don’t know. The sculpture protrait identifies the evil element in our world. May all of us continue to express our courage to unmask/uncloak evil. Stand up against wrong behaviour toward one another.
Suzanne, thank you for your great comment! Agree with every word.
I don’t think this sculpture is sick at all. It’s confeonting, absolutely but that doesn’t mean something is sick. It is talking about societal sickness, however.
It is a sculpture by a guy called Colin Suggett about US foreign policy, with the outstretched arms with torture devices references to the men who were tortured at Abu Ghraib, and the hood a ref to KKK and the Mickey Ears maybe referring to the tawdry spectacle of the violence.
It stuck with me after I saw it, though ues, it was very confronting