Where’s our naked Churchill?
About this Mary Wollstonecraft statue…not a statue of her, mind, a statue for her, whatever that means. Anyway, it’s been unveiled. Entirely unveiled. It’s not universally popular.
See, the statue is buck naked, and along with that, it’s…weird.
It reminds me of seeing naked classical statues in museums as child; for quite a long time I thought those leaf-things were what men actually had. (Yes, I must have been very dim.) I thought they looked deeply weird. It’s the same with this. It’s as if the statue has half a coconut shell pasted over her crotch. Pubic hair doesn’t look like that. (Anyway women aren’t allowed to have pubic hair any more. Shouldn’t the statue have the naked labia of an infant? Since it’s Everywoman and all.)
Actually the amorphous yet suggestive sculpture below the figure is more interesting though also not particularly relevant to the subject.
Also the pose is static and thoroughly uninteresting.
Apart from being naked not being Mary Wollstonecraft’s claim to fame, and the figure of a woman being a wee thing atop a great hurl of abstract, silvery vomit, and the statue looking nothing like Mary Wollstonecraft – it’s just a generic naked woman with no expression, suitable perhaps for topping a cheap cake at a nudist wedding – and it being a particularly poor statue qua nude (I mean, really, you want a nude woman statue, go big or go home, thank you very much Aristide Maillol), the supposed theme of this statue is absurd.
This is to honor Mary Wollstonecraft? Is this great swirl of silver crags and blobs meant to represent the force of the women’s suffrage movement? And it achieves what? Was this the Vindication of the Rights of Women? To be placed, naked, on a pedestal?
The proper name of this statue is “Patriarchy’s Revenge.”
Obviously sculpted by a man. No woman dreams of being naked, tiny, and stuck on top of a swirly thing in perpetuity, with her hands rigid at her sides and staring ahead.
Can we get the statue topplers to topple this one?
A naked statue of Churchill would be apt. He was famous for being naked and often used to hold meetings when he was in the bath. Wollstonecraft, less so.
Unfortunately the sculptor is a woman, and known for some really awful work. And I’ve read that that’s one reason this design was picked–there were two finalists in the competition, and the other one, which represented her life and work, was done by a man, and the committee wanted to give the commission to a woman.
It really is worse than nothing–have to agree that a good name for it would be ‘Patriarchy’s revenge’. It will not inspire anyone who looks at it to respect Mary Wollstonecraft, or kindle any interest at all in her life or work.
Can’t give you a naked Churchill, but I can provide a naked Napoleon–I have a great photo of his butt, from down the stairwell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_as_Mars_the_Peacemaker
Say one thing for former Soviet republics, they do a great line in triumphant statuary. Kyrgyz women’s rights activist Urkuya Salieva gets a proper awesome statue in Bishkek (and other statues there are not bad either, lots of natural but powerful poses. Why the hell couldn’t we have done something like that?
One good thing from this debacle is everyone tweeting statues of women. Many of the statues give you some idea of what the woman is famous for.
https://twitter.com/AudreySuffolk/status/1326178502828314625
I just saw this one of Joan Littlewood:- cocky and mischievous. It gets her character across.
https://twitter.com/KathrynKirton/status/1326284620044832773/photo/1
Also saw one commemorating witches a few miles from where I live, in Prestonpans. I didn’t know it existed and will visit it pronto.
https://twitter.com/hightreebud/status/1326228407101906944/photo/1
Surely someone could have done a statue of an intellectual and revolutionary Mary W? Clothed?
Wow, that’s atrocious.
The close-ups of the top are terrible. Seeing the whole thing initially seemed mitigating, as I thought the shape of the water or whatever was interesting. Upon looking at it further I noticed it looked like women’s legs and other body parts, so that’s sort of creepy. I’m sure it’s supposed to be some sort of symbolism, but it looks like something out of a horror movie.
How did this even happen?
I agree with iknklast that the next time people are pulling statues down, this one should be on the list.
Here’s a self portrait of the ghoul responsible for this atrocity:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Maggi+Hambling&prmd=insv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4j5f9q_nsAhXBPM0KHbrKDWMQ_AUoAXoECBAQAQ&biw=834&bih=1019#imgrc=BG8zIIyWXtfkDM
(OK, “ghoul” may be unfair. Perhaps she’s a wonderful person, but just a terrible sculptor, at least in this case.)
So the woman being commemorated is a featureless and static woman stand-in in her own statue? And what the hell is with the scale of that thing? The size disparity makes the woman look like a joke, a Barbie doll that vanishes against that massive billowing thing. And with the sculpture being dominated by that thing, it’s worth taking a look at what the fuck it is.
At first I thought it was reminiscent of billowing sheets and robes, which might have been considered graceful in a way, but the zoomed out shot makes it all fall apart. The description has it that the giant lump is “a swirling mixture of female forms”, but it reminded me of a gigantic tumour.
Worthless.
Skeletor – yup, I see the melted woman too.
10-year campaign. “Here’s your fucking statue, bitches!” Thanks for nothing.
@latsot – a statue of Churchill in his bath, dictating letters, would be great fun. I can see kiddies paddling on his tummy.
Yes – it should be a fountain.
I was thinking the Churchill bath statue should be a koi pond. The fountain idea raises uncomfortable questions. I guess if you put the bath up on a pedestal, then it could perpetually overflow.
Tracy King was on Newsnight speaking about this. This isn’t the best clip, but it’s all I have to hand at the moment.
https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1326309416640122885?s=09
If you don’t know Tracy, you should. She organised the TAMs London and did a lot of work on grassroots skepticism stuff in the UK such as Skeptics in the Pub. She also produced the excellent animation and book of Tim Minchin’s Storm.
BTW: One of Tracy’s badges reads “Feminist Killjoy”. Which I found funny.
The eentsy naked figure on the top of…whatever that is, is worthy of Arno Breker. Static, anonymous, ‘idealized.’
This incident from a couple of years ago was resurrected in my news feed today: the statue of a naked Trump placed in a park by a vigilante sculptor.
https://m.facebook.com/RBReich/photos/a.404595876219681/1284991398180120/?type=3
Robert Reich’s caption reads: