Sept 15, 2010: Exposure

When ever we in the US do large public space art, it usually gets planned to death, with input from everybody and his brother. We wouldn't want to offend anyone.
Across the pond they seem to erect much larger pieces, with less input. So it's done, or at least too far along to change, before most of the public gets a gander at it.

Anthony Gormley’s latest mammoth sculpture, Exposure which is to be unveiled formally in September, has opinion divided. Nothing particularly new there, you might say. Yet Exposure, weighing in at sixty tonnes, twenty six meters (85 feet) in height and poised rather delicately in a crouching position is causing something of a ruckus in the Netherlands, where it has been assembled.

Well I know what it looks like to me.:rolleyes:

It is customary, these days, to nickname any new gargantuan work of art and this has certainly been the case with Exposure. One rather unimpressed resident of the nearby town of Lelystad quickly christened Exposure as de poepende man and the name has caught on. It doesn’t even loosely translate as sitting, but if you put an h after the first consonant you get the picture. The rather more polite element of Dutch society uses the word hurkende – which means crouching. Either way, there is no doubt whether or not the locals have formed an idea about which specific function our latest friendly giant is performing.

Guess I'm not the only one that knows squat.

link

:eek: He's naked! :eek:

And not in a good way - he needs some skin, at least - Criminey.

I really, really like it! It's like the peasant version of Rodin's Thinker (i.e. no chair, so just squat). And it reminds me of the Catalan caganer.

I lived in the Netherlands for 6 years, and liked the fact that a a lot of their public art is not just interesting but fun as well. Among my favourites are the enormous elephants alongside the A6 freeway near Almere. (Sorry, no English Wiki page for it. But more photos here.) Each ellie is about 11m long, 7m tall and weighs about 40,000 kg. I see on that Wiki page that they painted them orange for the 2006 soccer WC.

Australia gets a bit hamstrung by regulations and discussion prior to the event too. I was involved in a local attempt at building a giant mosaic wombat, but one of the govt rules was that it must be built so that "no one can injure themselves on it, accidentally or deliberately". Deliberately?! You can hurt yourself on just about anything if you really want to do it. So no wombat. :sniff:

Deliberately? Does that mean they'll tear down the bridges, light poles, stairs and buildings with corners, too. :rolleyes:

They prolly don't have pointy scissors either...

Gormley has quite a few commissioned works on display at a range of locations. Though not all are pretty, they're always impressive.

First thought: Pooping Position.

I hate it.

To me it's a 'Talking to a child' position.

Everybody poops. Even Mommy and Daddy. Mutitasking at it's finest

It's begging for a prankster to roll a giant turd ball sculpture into place under his butt.

The Netherlands is really flat, so Craptastic Man will be visible from a very long way away.

sandypossum;682540 wrote:

Australia gets a bit hamstrung by regulations and discussion prior to the event too. I was involved in a local attempt at building a giant mosaic wombat, but one of the govt rules was that it must be built so that "no one can injure themselves on it, accidentally or deliberately". Deliberately?! You can hurt yourself on just about anything if you really want to do it. So no wombat. :sniff:

That's a shame, I'd have liked to see a giant mosaic Me.

Brianna;682561 wrote:

First thought: Pooping Position.

glatt;682567 wrote:

It's begging for a prankster to roll a giant turd ball sculpture into place under his butt.

Wombat;682575 wrote:

Craptastic Man

Bwahahahahaaaa

My first thought was that it's going to be a turtle who is trying to walk on two legs.

But then I saw the long feet.

What's the name of the work? "Taking The Browns To The SuperBowl"?

He needs to increase the Achilles tendon length to improve the ankle dorsiflexion (though not so much that the talar neck impinges upon the anterior aspect of the distal tibia).

Pooping position was not my first thought. Its a wonder to me thats what people think because, really now, when was the last time you took that position to poop?

Was that a rhetorical question or did you really want answers?

lol

I don't like it. It is too abstract when a more realistic sculpture would be more appropriate.

That is called a hunker.
It's just plump Westerners that don't use it much. In most of the world, folks hold the position for hours and use it for every activity.

I hope someone does roll a large log under him.:p: