An Australian teenager has faced court for allegedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by sticking googly eyes on it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday charged with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the local council said CCTV footage showed a person putting artificial eyes on the artwork which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
I’m kind of sympathetic to the idea that there should be some sort of fine associated with petty vandalism, but I’ve also seen a number of comments here and elsewhere that it’s unlikely that whatever she did actually required causing this much damage to remove it, and that if it did, the sculpture was poorly designed in the first place. One user on Reddit asked whether, if the city had decided to use dynamite to remove the eyes, she should be liable for all the damage caused by the dynamite. I think that that’s probably a fair point to make. The blame doesn’t need to be entirely on any one party here.
I could see fining her for whatever one might reasonably expect a competent removal to run from a properly-designed artwork, but not dumping costs on her from failures in those other areas.
If i’d paid £68,000 for a statue to be installed outdoors and the coating on it was so thin that the glue on the back of a pair of googly eyes ruined the entire statue, I’d definitely be asking for my money back from the artist
Looking at the “damage” - it seems whoever removed them used a hard scraper and some sort of aggressive solvent. This is not damage from the googly eyes, but from the hands of the remover, who probably had too much caffeine and enthusiasm that day.
unless the person who put on the googly eyes glued them so that it would hold better
Looks better with the eyes.
I charge Amelia Vanderhorst with being a legend.
And that’s why, kids, you should never cheap out and skip primer. This piece won’t last two years of Australian weather before it start chipping, and this kid proof it.
the kid might have glued the eyes
This story was cute until I saw this, if removing the eyes didn’t damage the art it would be harmless but that’s really unfortunate…
That’s shit art is what it is, if you can’t handle googly eyes you weren’t gonna survive the elements
This is on whoever removed the eyes.
There are like two dozen ways to completely dissolve most adhesives.
Or what, did she epoxy them on there?
Cooking oil does a great job for a lot of adhesives, and won’t damage surfaces like many solvents will. It’s also a great way to get animals unstuck from glue traps.
I wonder what pigeon shit is going to do to it? Seems too fragile to clean with pressure washers.
This is like a SimCity news ticker item.
As an Aussie, I can confidently say we would have preferred the googlies left on
There is a statue in Glasgow that always has a traffic cone on its head.
The council regularly removes it, and its always replaced.
It’s had different variations over the years, from pride to independence to EU flags.
The council proposed a renovation of the statue including raising the plinth to make it harder to replace the cone. It was shot down with massive public outcry.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_statue_of_the_Duke_of_Wellington,_Glasgow
In 2013, Glasgow City Council put forward plans for a £65,000 restoration project, which included a proposal to double the height of its plinth and raise it to more than six feet (1.8 metres) in height to “deter all but the most determined of vandals”.[12] Their planning application contained an estimate that the cost of removing traffic cones from the statue was £100 per callout, and that this could amount to £10,000 per year.
If the police are taking it down 100 times per year and people are putting a new one up 100 times per year, I’m kind of impressed with the determination on both sides.
Theres also an elk made of straw somehwere in Sweden that gets burned down every year, no matter what kind of security measure they put up. Not sure if I can find it now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gävle_goat It’s a goat?
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Would be hilarious if people just kept going and putting more eyes on it every time they removed them.
Can’t deface what doesn’t have a face. If anything she faced it.
She.
the best kind of art is art you interact with. if this art is for the public, then allow the public to have it.
The local council said they could not remove the eyes without damaging the artwork
(emph. mine)
Ok, but why is their incompetence an argumen?
Kid might have used glue, and many solvents will damage paint.
I was wondering that too. Just take some isopropyl alcohol and those stickers would fall right off. They really went out of their way to damage the paint during removal.
Because they are in charge.
Why is she punished for vastly improving it?
Like it better with the eyes.
Looks like the unholy outcome of breeding a Smurf with a Womble…
Which is to say that it looks much better with the eyes in place.
That in itself is art.
Someone needs to yarn-bomb this thing. Perhaps something like a headband that falls to googly-eye level maybe. Perhaps, you know, with eyes on it.
Either way, I’d be tempted to put up a sign next to it that says “Help! I’ve gone blind!”
I look forward to this kid’s next piece
