Posted on 11/29/2023 5:58:00 PM PST by simpson96
Commissioning public art ain’t easy. Art is subjective, meaning that a piece beloved by one person may be thought of as absolutely goddamn terrible by another.
Still, there’s gotta be a better option than this:
Recently, Vienna, Austria celebrated the 150th anniversary of its Hochquellen-Leitung — the pipeline that brings water into the city. Rather than mark the occasion with a small get-together (replete with whatever terrible hors d’oeuvres they eat in Austria), the city decided to think bigger.
We can do better than a party, they thought. Hell, this is a water celebration! Let’s bring in the art group Gelatin to create a brand new fountain! And so, they did that. And it looks like ass.
The piece, WirWasser (clumsily translated as “WeWater”), features several, uh, things? There’s a guy there, I think. Some woodland creatures, too.
Look, there are some vaguely humanoid beings involved, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what’s going on. WirWasser looks like they wanted to create something to represent how water unifies us, then ended up spawning a Satanic beast hated by just about everyone. Unification mission accomplished, I guess. Hopefully they didn’t spend a lot of money on it.
What’s that? The piece cost $2 million? Oh. Oh dear.
People involved in the project seem appropriately embarrassed about it. “There is really everything in there,” a spokesperson for the city told Austrian outlet Wien Heute, clearly grasping at straws to find any redeeming quality with the piece.
One of the artists was also interviewed by ArtMagazine.cc, where, in a voice completely devoid of interest, he stated, “A fountain is a fountain. You just think about things. You come to an idea, and a solution, and an implementation — and if it works, the idea is good.”
Please, ask yourself, is it? Is it really?
If you’re holding onto some faint hope that maybe this is just a cultural difference, and that maybe the people of Austria are really jazzed about the fountain — nope.
Prior to its construction, “A group of residents and the FPÖ ran up a storm against the ‘luxury fountain,’ considering it superfluous,” writes Wien Heute. “There was even a petition against it.”
But hey, if you’re thirsty in Vienna, the fountain features a “drinking point with fresh water for passers-by.” Two million dollars well spent.
$2 million and the *artists* are laughing all the way to the bank at the fools who buy into their opinion of what *art* is.
That is not art. It’s a mockery.
No, just a wrinkled old retainer...
And it looks like ass.No -- it looks like hemorrhoids.
I looked at fountain & assumed it was in San Fransicko. Does the fountain have a rating, and minors can’t view without parent?
Modern “art” is a scam.
The “chevy on a stick” in Albuquerque is better than that.
They say that art is in the eye of the beholder, but in this case, don't be a holder...
No way in hell I'm taking a sip from that cesspool.
Ugh....no.
My son and two nieces could have created a masterpiece in comparison for a fraction of the cost. They are all very talented artists and the fountain would have been inspiring.
Even if they didn’t go Greco-Roman and went Deco, it still would have been cool (think the Statler Fountain in Boston).
This is a hot mess. That is the nicest thing I can say about it.
Trevi, it is not. Heck, Fontana del Moro blows this away and water was the key theme in all the sculptures..
That Plugas Water Temple is so much more peaceful and elegant looking.
“That Plugas Water Temple is so much more peaceful and elegant looking.”
Isn’t it? It is the perfect setting for receiving the water. The water used to dump right into the temple after its 160 mile journey from the mountains, but they added some water treatment and that ended in the 90s. It was a sight to see with the huge flow of water dumping into that structure.
There’s another similar water temple in Sunol, CA maybe 25 or 30 miles from that one in Redwood City.
Because it is so ugly.
What did you want, a giant closepin? A giant cherry on a giant spoon? A giant reflective bean?
YES MONEY LAUNDERING!
This 'masterpiece' could make the case that Art Clokey had an evil twin.
Gumby would know to stay away far from this cast of characters.
How much did Michelin pay them to include Bibendum, the Michelin Man, in that atrocity?
A golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ GOH-ləm; Hebrew: גּוֹלֶם, romanized: gōlem) is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century rabbi of Prague. According to Moment magazine, "the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism. It can be a victim or villain, man or woman—or sometimes both. Over the centuries, it has been used to connote war, community, isolation, hope, and despair."[1]
Today? Society is ugly, mean, misanthropic, and crapulent.
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