A Doggie Do Dump In Victoria Park

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Nothumberland Today printed the below in their Letters-to-the-Editor, June 26 edition. The words coloured red were deleted by the editor.

I went to see ‘Sheltering Form’, the sculpture made by local resident, Frances Gage, that now sits in Victoria Park. Unfortunately I have to do a Simon Cowell on this work. (Simon Cowell is the blunt judge on American Idol)

As I walked towards the sculpture, I could not rid myself that it appeared to be the shape and colour of a dump of doggie do. It was low to the ground, just like... well, you get the picture. Regrettably, the cement platform failed to dispel this unpleasant image; it highlighted it.
It is an unfortunate outcome for the Abuse Awareness Project who asserted before Cobourg’s Committee on Art in Public Spaces, “we want the display to remind us of the comfort, caring and protection that we, as individuals and as communities are called upon to extend to victims and survivors alike."
Ms Gage said the sculpture, “…speaks for itself. It has its own rhythm. I think about clouds and snowdrifts. This is for the birds, they will have a lovely time.”

Really!?

As I stood there, I notice that I was looking DOWN at it, the position we assume when looking down on a dead body.
There was nothing that suggested “comfort, caring and protection.” The position of the sculpture so low on the ground was more suggestive of vulnerability and victimhood.

It is low enough for passing canines to relieve themselves on it or children to park their posteriors in the bowl of it. How utterly undignified. Someone on the Committee on Art in Public Spaces should have had a gram of competence to see this coming. At the very least, this mediocre sculpture should have been placed on a plinth, at a level higher than a urinal. Who is going to be liable if some unheeding running child trips over it and smashes their head on it? Who is going to be liable when it is covered with snow and some jogger trips and gouges themselves on it?

I suspect the motivation of this so-called art was so noble that it blinded the Committee on Art in Public Spaces. Did none have the aesthetic spine to inform an elderly woman artist that her devoted labours resulted in a piece of mediocrity that missed the mark and is an undignified pile of…

Simon Cowell has enough self-respect, and respect for the public, to tell a wannabe performer that the song was sung out of tune. Frances Gage’s work is out of tune in several respects and shame on the Committee on Art in Public Spaces for permitting this monstrosity to be dumped in our public space.