Statue of Imitation
By Carol Fondiller
It must have been a slow news day for the L.A. Times
on Saturday, April 16th, when it ran one of it's boiler plate "oh those Wacky
Venetians" stories on the front page. Below the fold, but definitely on the
Front Page.
This time, it was about the objections of the
Venice Community to the placing of a torso on the Venice Traffic Circle. And as
usual those funny zanies at the Times missed the point.
The point missed was a lack of process in the choice
of art work, and the perception that if one were famous enough and had rich
patrons, one could dump anything they wanted in Venice.
We’re certain that Robert Graham is a
sensitive artist. And, he is a resident of Venice.
But, just because he is an artist and therefore has
elevated sensibilities does not mean that he or any other artisty-poo that
inhabits Venice has get a right to shove his stuff on Venice. That Damned
Masonic Symbol at the end of Windward Avenue is bad enough.
And bad enough is the fact that the statue is a
legless armless headless torso – but what's a memorial to Elizabeth Short,
the Black Dahlia, got to do with Venice?
Suddenly Mr. Doumani, a Peninsula resident, promises
several hundred thousand dollars for this statue and the cash strapped city -
can't afford beach benches - comes across with some matching funds. When people
objected to the lack of process, they were threatened with the withholding of
any more artworks in the future. “Well if you bad little children
don’t like oatmeal, you won’t get any more food in the
future.”
It isn’t as if people in Venice didn't have
Visions about what to do about the traffic circle. In previous issues of the
Beachhead, many creative and wonderful ideas about how to make the circle
outstanding were published. And the Beachhead is certain there are more
innovative ideas out there.
But the process was ignored, and about six business
people who form the circle business association decided what they wanted, and
bedazzled by Mr. Graham's fame, accepted the torso statue.
But in a renaissance style mix of expensive art and
high politics the L.A. Times pursued the matter in an attempt to shame the
people of Venice. Venice ain’t what it was, the editorial (Thursday, April
21) claimed, no more free thinkers and diversity. Just soaring property values
and gentrification.
The Times said that the protest was over morality
rather than quality. No, not necessarily. It was a matter of having an art thing
dropped in the middle of downtown Venice that didn’t involve the
community, nor did it represent the community. The proposed statue isn't even an
original work. It looks like a knock-off of statues that he did that litter
Beverly Hills.
Perhaps Mr. Graham might design a statue of Jefferson Davis
and plant it is Watts, or maybe a statue of Emperor Maximillian in East
L.A.
Posted: Sun - May 1, 2005 at 02:57 PM