Today's award goes to the directors of a Catholic school in Adelaide, Australia, whose artistic judgement has turned out to be, in a word, catastrophically inept. A tip o' the hat to Australian reader Snoggeramus for bringing it to my attention.
AN Adelaide Catholic school has been forced to cover and cordon off a new religious statue after raising eyebrows for its unfortunate design.
Blackfriars Priory School, at Prospect, unveiled the statue late last week of St Dominic handing a young boy a loaf of bread, which appears to have emerged from his cloak.
One of St Dominic’s miracles was the ample supply of bread.
But the sculpture’s unintentionally provocative design has had unintended consequences and created a flurry of activity on social media ... the school was forced to cover the statue with a black cloth after students took inappropriate photos on Friday and by this week it had been cordoned off.
One Instagram user wrote: “Like who the hell designed, approved and erected it and no one thought about it?”.
Another user wrote: “Blackfriars is not alone. I saw heaps of similarly dodgy ones while living in Chile”.
Other users commented: “surely this can’t be real” and “can’t believe this happened”.
There's more at the link.
Verily, the mind doth boggle. After all the publicity about Catholic priests and child sex abuse, for a Catholic school to display a statue like that, even if it does depict a saint and a well-known incident in his hagiography . . . the sheer stupidity, the lack of common sense and understanding of whoever approved that design, is truly epic. He, she or they need to be removed from their posts at once, before they do any more damage to what is otherwise probably a very good school.
(Of course, we can guess what the schoolboys must be saying about it! During my own school days, I can't recall that we were ever renowned for our respect for authority. Given their irreverent national heritage and Australians' well-earned reputation for "taking the piss", schoolboys down under must be doubly so!)
Peter
the sheer stupidity, the lack of common sense and understanding of whoever approved that design, is truly epic.
ReplyDeleteYou can bet there will be others who will strive mightily to match or exceed that stupidity, although it is not clear how that could be accomplished.
Dad29. . .Go over to Gun Free Zone and look at yesterday's posts about Charles Manson. They strove, and may have matched or surpassed this one.
ReplyDeleteSimply amazing... In the stupidity... And one wonders about the sculptor, what were THEY thinking???
ReplyDeleteWhat was the sculptor thinking? Probably a non-Catholic, who decided to put one over on an organization well known for its pedophilia.
ReplyDeleteI would have never interpreted that statue that way. I had to look at it for a few seconds before I saw it. Therefore, I'll bet the thought never crossed the mind of the people involved.
ReplyDeleteSo where should his hand be? Holding the loaf at arm's length, like he's afraid to be close to the kid?
There's a famous joke about a psychologist showing inkblots to a patient with the punchline being the patient telling the psychologist, "but you're the one showing me the dirty pictures".
A little to the side, perhaps? I mean, really...
DeleteThe scarier thought is that the sculptor or designer or the one responsible for approval knew what it looked like... and did it anyway.
ReplyDelete"Stupid" is a disturbing explanation for the statue, but "Evil" is even more disturbing.
There's the (in)famously bad statue of Fr. Junipero Serra... Aka "Father Pull-my-Finger"... in CA. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/6231
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
So where should his hand be?
ReplyDeleteHow about BOTH hands holding the loaf about 2-3" above the bellybutton, with arms extended so that the hands are 6-8" in front of the Saint?
The statue of William Penn atop city hall in Philly has the same issue. He has a scroll in his hand at waist level.
ReplyDeleteWhen viewed from the side, it looks as if Billy has a good grip on himself.
When it's raining, it looks like he's taking a piss on the city.
Gerry
@Gerry,
ReplyDeleteI think that Penn (actual) probably would piss on what's become of his city.