A Fitting Memorial to Diana ("The puddle")

Tech Central Station ^ | August 4, 2004 | Josie Appleton

[quidnunc]

Two of the judges on the committee for the Diana memorial have broken rank to say that they should never have picked Kathryn Gustafson's ring-shaped waterway. Architect Edward Jones and art critic Richard Cork have argued that the submission by Anish Kapoor was much better, and would have been an "extraordinary, world-class memorial" rather than just "splashing around in water."

This is the latest in a litany of problems faced by the memorial (nicknamed "the puddle"), which currently lies closed and empty in London's Hyde Park only three weeks after its opening. The rock was tricky to cut, the pumps got clogged, and paddlers injured themselves by falling over. But there is perhaps something fitting about all these technical hitches: the spirit behind the memorial is so flimsy that you would almost have expected it to fall apart.

The memorial is made up of sculpted granite channels in the shape of a ring: water flows from the start in opposite directions to meet in a pool on the other side. The granite is carved to vary the speed at which the water flows, which apparently represents Diana's different moods. Gustafson said that she wanted the memorial to represent the princess' "inclusive" personality, and encouraged people to "become part of" the memorial by paddling in its waters.

-snip-

[randog]

What he said.

[Brian Allen]

<< Yeah, a regular Mother Teresa.... Boy did you buy the propaganda.

Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't shag her, 'cuz I would--at least before the car accident.... >>

My mate said she was at her most attractive after that.

Beforehand he said he was never quite sure wgether she would thrash about and cut him with the bones in her arms and legs [He felt safe, he said, from her wit -- being as she was, in that department, less than half armed] -- or chunder liquid laughter all over him.

And then there was that Egyptian coke dealer she was hanging with -- and all of his goons and the hordes of unpaid Colombians after them all.

What a bloody trollup!

[Calico Cat]

Why is this harpy worthy of a memorial? She was a weepy, self-obsessed, whiny, promiscuous, self-pitying shrew. I can't stand the Windsors, but she knew what she was getting into when she married into that pack of inbreds. She was a spoiled brat.

[Clintonfatigued]

You've misunderstood me. I'm not nominating Princess Diana for sainthood. I know that she was far from perfect. But her death was still a tragedy. She wasn't a dictator or a serial killer. The right thing to do is show restraint and avoid dwelling on her faults when speaking (or posting) about her.