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”.
Can’t deface what doesn’t have a face. If anything she faced it.
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
There’s on in Perth (Australia) where people regularly put clothes on it. Like, it’s more often than not, dressed in something with a seasonal, political, or humorous tone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_(sculpture)
I like the extra challenge that it’s over water!
The local council said they could not remove the eyes without damaging the artwork
(emph. mine)
Ok, but why is their incompetence an argumen?
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.
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.
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
I charge Amelia Vanderhorst with being a legend.
the best kind of art is art you interact with. if this art is for the public, then allow the public to have it.
If they used more than about 2 coats of paint it prob wouldn’t have been an issue.
I look forward to this kid’s next piece
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!”
This is like a SimCity news ticker item.
It shouldn’t be a crime if it’s objectively hilarious.
Why is she punished for vastly improving it?
Perhaps they shouldn’t have used a paint chipper to remove the eyes.
Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; £68,000), the artwork
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