-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Wasilla Alaska, the hometown of ex half-governor Sarah Palin, is in the news again. Artists Jim Dault and Shala Dobson were commissioned to create an outdoor sculpture for Wasilla High School. The $100,000 work of art is entitled “The Warrior Within” and is pictured on the left.
The problem? Some parents and students think it looks like … girlie parts.
The principal, Amy Spargo, has put a tarp over the sculpture because of complaints that it vaguely resembles a vulva. That high school students would display such juvenile thinking is understandable, but the reaction of the parents is mind boggling.
Spargo claims the tarp isn’t censorship, it’s there to protect the sculpture. Spargo is concerned vandals might damage the artwork. There’s a teachable moment in leadership, caving in to threats of vandalism.
The design of the sculpture was presented to the art committee and the school board, and was given a green light. They obviously didn’t take into account the anatomy-challenged philistines of Wasilla.
H/T: Pharyngula, The Mudflats, LA Times, Frontiersman.
@Bron – I believe the quote I heard was, ” Boys spend 15 months getting off the breast, and the next 15 years trying to get back on.” Your results may vary.
(Damn, it might be growing on me.) -Lottakatz..
lol.
A couple of comments to http://bo-ne.ws/forum/read.php?10,77231,77231#msg-77231
“After all, the Meadow Lakes artists are Valley residents and have a familial connection with the school”
Jim and Shala are old friends of mine.
Your Mother
February 28, 2012 05:52PM
Registered: 7 months ago
Posts: 10
For a while, we were even neighbors. When the postage stamp-sized public park in our neighborhood somehow got funds for upgrades, the city sent out mailers to all the residents asking for input. Jim and Shala were the only people to respond and they ended up getting to design the park all by themselves. They picked out some really cool playground equipment like a mini rock-climbing wall and – as a nod to the Hell’s Angels’ clubhouse down the block – a couple motorcycle-themed things. There was also a happy sun sculpture that I really liked. And there wasn’t a single vagina or penis to be seen…unless maybe it was the middle of the night and some prostitute was servicing a john in a parked car. That happened sometimes. Probably still does.
They seem like fun peeps
Sanpaku
February 28, 2012 10:46PM
Registered: 5 months ago
Posts: 189
As far as I can tell, most of Dault & Dobson’s 1%-for-art commissions are on the comic side, which may part of their intent at Wasilla HS. Or they could be doing a David Czerny thing where the controversy is the intended art piece, rather than the sculpture itself.
But, given that Forbidden Fruit show, I’ve got a hard time accepting any claims of “innocence”. It’s like Georgia O’Keefe insisting that she was just painting flowers. There’s a long long, long history of stylized vulvas going back to Çatal Hüyük and beyond, and I’ve seen more than one commentary urging that these regain their former public prominence alongside the obelisks etc.
I haven’t been able to find any images of the other half of the Wasilla HS sculpture, which is an aluminium shield with a flame motif. Is this on the other side of the stone, or on another stone? I’d be very amused if the flame seemed to issue from the peak of a stylized narrow shield…
So… as a friend of mine likes to say, “Who the hell knows…”
Oh, I did want to say that the pic doesn’t do it justice which is why I like field trips to see artwork and not just looking at photos of artwork. By necessity a photo can’t do art justice. So I found some other pics of it.
The thing is huge about 10′-12′ and it looks to be lighted from inside so that light shines out of the stone through the feather inserts. That’s kind of interesting and striking. I still don’t think it works overall. The size alone has me laughing my butt off though.
I would think anyone passing by would get a kick out of it- maybe that’s really the point, to send people passing by away with a grin. But there are some things that just can’t be explained to a committee if you want the money. Whatever it is meant to be, it is in fact EPIC! 🙂
In its epic splendor:
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2012/02/wasilla-high-celebrates-warrior-within.html
(Damn, it might be growing on me.)
Always, always “follow the money”… (I wonder how much $$ the two of them have received… and over what period of time.)
“Jim Dault and Shala Dobson, the artists who built the sculpture, have had nine works installed under the state’s public art programme in which all public buildings must spend one per cent of their building budget on art..”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106466/High-school-buries-100-000-public-artwork-tarpaulin–students-say-looks-like-vagina.html#ixzz1o4u7m2IX
(lol, Woosty…)
Wasilla High’s “Fine Arts” offerings:
http://www.matsuk12.us/17762011684840217/site/default.asp
Fine Arts
Art Survey
Art Studio I – IV
Art Studio ~ AP
Craft Survey
Chorus
Concert Choir
Concert Band
Photography as an Art
Symphonic Band
Stage/Jazz Band
Anyone dumb enough t pay $100K for that….well ya have to know going into this their thinking is screwed up! LoL
Nobody commented SHE.
No: “the biggest in town; fall in, yes but walk in is ridiculous.: just my size say Rush, where’s the blackboard. etc.”
Boo hoo.
Recently awakened by another juror: “Was it “pubic art” he said they paid for?”
Gene, Elaine, Actually I like the idea of field trips and a resident artist but I wonder if they even teach art at that school. You could let the kids come up with their own projects and have several pieces of art on the grounds each year, like a rotating yearly showcase.
The program Elaine mentioned isn’t really about the schools though, it’s about providing money for public art to support creative individuals and develop cultural appreciation of art etc. In trying to find out more about the program I ran across a comment discussing the consolidation of five $50K grants into one $250.000. grant. The commission has a lot of latitude.
I think Anon Nurse might be right that there’s back-scratching going on. I did though see some pics of some really well done (IMO) art done for the program. It is art by committee though; an opportunity is announced and people submit proposals and a local committee makes a judgment. That can be hit and miss.
I don’t have a problem with that kind of program at all, I do have a problem with not getting your money’s worth. But it is Alaska’s money.
The program is explained:
http://www.eed.state.ak.us/aksca/visual.htm
What the heck is a “spenardtist??”
—————————————–
spend+ artist ?
but seriously, I think it’s a turtle….
if it was the Warrior Within wouldnt the hand print be convex rather than concave?
Looks like the Warrior is outside trying to get in, not vice versa.
Who said men spend their entire lives trying to get back into where they came from?
why is government paying $100,000 for art?
I think you are correct Gene that the money should have been better spent.
I suppose it does vaguely resemble a vulva and we are talking high school students who maybe don’t have sex on their minds for a few seconds every day but, The Warrior Within?! That’s hilarious.
As sarah Palin proved Alaska is not made up of normal people…. They also have the socialist philosophy to return to the people….. Share the wealth….. Also known as the APF………the education system should be funded as well….. But it’s part of the national campaign to screw teachers over and to get backbone the basic Rovian philosophy….. Keep smiling dumb so they’ll vote for us….. Short minded folks have short……. Oh yeah… Thats the rush claim to fame….
http://gurukalehuru.com/2012/02/25/the-great-stone-vagina-of-wasilla-high/
A whole lot of back-scratchin’ goin’ on in Wasilla, I would imagine..
(Gene H., Well said.)
Gene,
From the LA Times article:
Sarah Palin’s hometown in debate over public sculpture
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2012/02/wasilla-alaska-sculpture-vagina-sarah-palin.html
“The artwork in question is an outdoor sculpture created in conjunction with the state’s Percent For Art program, a public initiative to promote arts and culture.”
*****
The money to promote arts certainly could have been used more wisely. One way would have been to spend the money on artist-in-residence programs in schools. Such programs are excellent because they involve children in the artistic process. Wouldn’t it have been great to have invited Inuit artists into schools to teach children about their culture and arts?
Agree with Lottakatz, “100,000! Srsly?” Well, it will certainly help the ex-educator/”Spenardtists” through another year. These are tough times…
“Spenardtists Jim Dault and Shala Dobson have had a lengthy and productive artistic collaboration including stints as educators and gallerists and providing several Alaskan communities with memorable public art.” (from the link supplied by Lottakatz)
What the heck is a “spenardtist??”
Well . . . it’s not very good as a piece of sculpture. From a visual perspective, I don’t think the resemblance to a vulva is slight at all. It’s a natural consequence of the “cast off” lines running off from the bottom and top of the shield/almond shape in the center – they create a connotation legs and buttocks both by relation to the focal shape and in their curvature. That’s not what I find offensive about it though. Even in bad sculpture, the female form is not offensive (quite the opposite). What is offensive is that a school spent $100,000 on a sculpture instead of teacher’s salaries and/or school equipment. Art can be seen in a museum or a book. A school is supposed to be a school, not an art gallery. $100,000 could have bought a helluva lot of field trips to see art in the appropriate venue.
This public rage is brought to us by the same people who would deface great sculpture with fig leafs. The only difference is that this isn’t great sculpture and that it is suggestive of a vagina only shows a perversity of thought that would ban lengthened ovals of any sort. However, the penis and the vagina are inescapable parts of all human bodies and the idea that there is something horrid in their depiction, represents a mindset that is to me questionable.
Well if the purpose of art is to elicit an emotional response, this is certainly art. Then again “girlie parts” can have the same affect. Very perplexing in an existential kind of way