Monday, June 22, 2009

Vandals destroy artwork

From the Queens Tribune:

Is Queens ready for public art? Depends on who you ask. When artists Hector Canonge and Chin Chih Yang installed a tree with a 10-foot plastic globe inflated around it, they were hoping to get the community to focus on the perilous state of the environment. Instead, the globe was slashed June 12, some six days after it was installed, and remains in this sorry state under the track on Queens Boulevard and 33rd Street.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the tree hurt?

Anonymous said...

The perilous state of our environment has been graphically demonstrated by the perilous state of this "artwork"!

I'd say that any art critic" would deem it highly successful in conveying its message to the public.

This represents yet nother artsy-fartsy piece of self absorbed drivel!

C-mon...it's a attractive nuisance and anyone with a pin in his pocket would be tempted.

Anonymous said...

The tree would have died anyway trapped inside an sealed plastic beach ball.

Trees need to breathe and exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen...you stupid "artistes"!

Anonymous said...

No actually if you watch the temperature it would not kill the tree. This is how plants were transported during the Victorian era.

They were put in Wardian cases, the forerunner to today's terrariums. These sealed cases retained moisture and protected the plant from temperature extremes and salt.

Plastic bags can also be used to temporarily raise moisture levels around underwatered house plants to revive them faster or around tropicals such as flame violets or orchids to artificially increase heat and humidity.

That being said, I prefer no plastic around my trees.

Anonymous said...

This represents yet nother artsy-fartsy piece of self absorbed drivel!

Self-absorbed? Trying to get people to think about the environment is self-absorbed? I'd say it's the polar opposite.

...anyone with a pin in his pocket would be tempted.

Maybe any PINHEAD like you!

Unknown said...

Should've been more clear in the story - it's not a real tree. It's real tree branches, stuck together in a sand filed old tire. So there isn't much of a concern about the "tree" getting air.

Anonymous said...

flowers were meant to be picked and balloons were meant to be popped.

Anonymous said...

And thank you so much....Vladimir Dick our "astute" eastern block "fartiste"!

Anonymous said...

Those Wardian cases were not fully sealed nor are modern terrariums or greenhouses you dummy!

And speaking of horticulture...

"You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think"!

The wisdom of Grouch Marx.

Anonymous said...

I find it amazing that thing lasted in that area for 6 days without getting slashed sooner, or tagged, pissed on or stolen!

Anonymous said...

I am no dummy, have been growing plants for many years.

You are right that terrariums, greenhouses, and wardian cases are not fully sealed. This isn't fully sealed either. Many types of plastics are permeable to air and vapor, and even when this is no so, a discrete hole or occasionally lifting the cover provides all the ventilation you need. Although it is immaterial in any case since they used fake trees.

In any case, there is no reason why a tree or any other plant wouldn't do fine for a long period of time as long as they were not exposed to high temperatures or light levels that would produce same.

Anonymous said...

Many plastics off gas PVC which ain't exactly healthy to any living thing.

Once again...D-U-M-M-Y!

Geez....my grade school science teacher was better informed.

Anonymous said...

No wonder many "artists" are starving...expecting to earn a living from producing nothing that society needs...like this ball of crap!

Anonymous said...

I didn't say I liked plastic, I said it wasn't necessarily a death sentence to the plant inside, particularly since you can't kill what is already dead--reading impaired ignoramus. Put that in your Hash pipe and smoke it.

Anonymous said...

That's not a line of Groucho's it's Dorothy Parker's.

There is no justification for vandalism.

Anonymous said...

They probably would be more upset if it were ignored. In a perverse sense, their work was a success far beyond its due, since the vandalism brought press coverage to what was a rather jejune work.