Tuesday, August 2, 2011

About the short life of the 'Walk Man' in Tompkins Square Park

Late yesterday morning or early afternoon, some one or some thing rammed the 3-day-old "Walk Man" sculpture in Tompkins Square Park, as first reported by Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo.

Our own Bobby Williams was on the scene... and captured the aftermath...



Figuring that this might become an ongoing art-vs.vandal battle, artist Scott Taylor decided to remove the sculpture and take it home...


Now all that's left of "Walk Man" — a few holes in the ground.


Based on anecdotal research, the reaction to this (roughly!) falls into four groups:

• Now this is the East Village that I remember!

• It's too bad that we can't have anything nice here.

• Fucking crusties.

• I don't really care.

A sampling of the comments from the 17 left on our post yesterday:

Oh boo, what goddamn lowlife had to knock it over? I liked that thing; a spot of pure white amidst the greenery and dirt of the park.

IT WAS THE RATS. THE RATS, I SAY!

I like to see art in the park, but this sculpture is beyond wack. It's just so corporate and inoffensive and unimaginative and BLAH.

The sweater livelied it up ... the ramming was probs rude, yes, but my god -- toughen up Walk Man! You are the symbol of walking in NYC traffic and you wee-wee-wee all the way home at the first sign of hostility? Where is your street cred, man? The old "WALK/DONT WALK" letters would never put up with this shit! If they got rammed they'd fucking stand up the next day, battered and ready to brawl!

I'm sure there's some nice office building in Midtown where you can rest peacefully next to the security desk. I can't promise that security folks won't also find you super lame, art-wise, but at least you'll be safe. From sweaters.
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5 comments:

  1. esquared™August 2, 2011 at 9:40 AM

    take it to meatpacking district -- the douches , they-think-they-are-a-model types, and scenesters sans imagination and creativity over there will be in awe of this unimaginative and bland piece. probably the only 'art' they'll see in their lifetime

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marty WombacherAugust 2, 2011 at 10:23 AM

    That ain't a bad way to pick up insurance, ya know?

    http://twe.ly/nWob

    ReplyDelete
  3. dmbreamAugust 2, 2011 at 10:26 AM

    Would be perfect for the AOL building at 770 B'way.

    That's the Instant Messenger guy, yah?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ScottAugust 2, 2011 at 11:47 AM

    Denigrate art all you want, but the minute you desecrate it, you deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Rats? Vandalism? Do we have to start seeing homeless encampments and violent crime before we realize we’re going backward, not forward?

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousAugust 2, 2011 at 12:42 PM

    this facebook page explains everything http://www.facebook.com/pages/Olek/200915566758

    ReplyDelete

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