Monday, November 25, 2013

Pornographic sculpture at Socrates?

From George the Atheist's blog, which includes an objection letter to Veronica White, Parks Commissioner:
"...this narrative depicts a moment of shock and death." What? Death by tumescence?

"The wild bear looms over man while sinking his teeth into the man's shoulder." You see teeth here? I sense something else is being sunk into that poor fellow. Even his buttocks are bloody red!

Ms White, little innocent New York City School children visit this park quite often. Must they be subjected to such an offensive, disgraceful and outrageous depiction of bad taste, questionable "art", and obvious pornography? I submit this borders on child abuse. Just what is going on with the New York City Parks Department under your aegis which champions this blatant display of bestiality?
Do guys getting attacked by bears normally have erections? Just curious.

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lots of kids programs here, too.

BTW, Suna of Silvercup is the president. Contact him publicly about this and we can see how art and development mix.

After 5 Pointz Queens is getting quite the reputation over this issue.

Anonymous said...

get this sh#t out of the park - this is a perv legally perving - nothing more.

Anonymous said...

This looks more like an artistic rendering of what Mike Bloomberg did to NYC taxpayers over the past 12 years.

Joe Moretti said...

Do guys getting attacked by bears normally have erections? Just curious.

-------------------

I guess it depends on how hot the bear is.

Anonymous said...

That's a bear. Looks more like a dog or a moose.

Anonymous said...

Where is the Queens Parks Commissioner as well???

Anonymous said...

Look who's council district this sits in...

Anonymous said...

In Queens they are leading the way on trying to use every aspect of or boroughs (somewhat 2nd rate) culture as a cover for development

- as if the arts are merely a hood ornament that takes attention away (and sugar coats) ugly corner-cutting architecture put up with our tax breaks and funded by a bill for the public to pay the infrastructure to sustain it.

http://new.livestream.com/talkingtransition/NYC

Page down to "Thrive in Queens"

Here you see the usual suspects from the tiny handful of well funded organizations telling us how we should have cultural programs at the library -

which has no culture or arts members on its developer loaded board -

and how exciting the Queens Museum will be with its ebay sourced displays -

BTW perhaps Noguchi should transfer its collection there before it gets ruined by the next hurricane.

Take a look at Suna sitting there.

Cannot think as to why he takes a chair from a deserving art group but, then, this is Queens.

Anonymous said...

The Crapper asks if guys getting attacked by bears have erections.

If the guy getting "attacked" by the bear is a pervert yes!

The bottom line here is that the NYC Department of Parks is promoting perversion. With PUBLIC $$$.

Let's learn and play said...

C'mon over here kids. Let's look at this one. See the funny man getting f____d in the ass by a silly-looking bear?

Anonymous said...

I think the biggest problem with cultural institutions in Queens is that they are funded by politicians, and in turn, expected to provide photo-ops and programming that would pull in certain groups whose support (and political donations) are sought by the same politicians.

The problem is two fold

First, the programming is of limited general interest.

Something like a songfest of patriotic tunes from mainline China is of no interest to Koreans or Filipinos - or the general public.

The only way that programming like this could be a success would be for the cultural societies from the home countries stage programming for their audiences- as for example, the Greeks do in Astoria.

Great for culture. Poor for politics.

The second problem is edginess stuff like this and Five Pointz. If you want to go beyond Thomas Kincaid (which is about the level that most of Queens Community boards and politicians can appreciate) you will run into conflicts like this. Artists do not like to be fenced in.

These two problems will increasingly become pronounced over time.

My guess is that Thomas Kincaid, museum exhibits sourced from Ebay, and small audiences watching Indonesian folk songs in large money losing auditoriums will be the order of the day.

All of this masked by projects with out-sized capital budgets or mega-development projects like the five 40-story Silvercup Towers touting the wonderful amenities of the microscopic Terra Cotta Building standing in its shadow.

georgetheatheist said...

I am pretty sure now the President of the Board of Directors of the Socrates Sculpture Park, Mr.Stuart Match Suna; the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Mark di Suvero; and the Executive Director, Mr. John Hatfield have seen the error of their ways in permitting this display of filth and obscenity.

Rumor has it that with their imprimatur, and as a mea culpa to the public, the so-called "sculpture" entitled "Bear Eats Man" will be removed and a Christmas Nativity Scene, complete with creche and a beautiful Baby Jesus in its stead will soon be gracing this public parkland for the upcoming holiday season.

Thank you gentlemen.

PS See? One can learn from Jerry Wolkoff over at 5 Pointz who stipulated that no obscenity be painted on the walls of his private real estate. Unfortunately, as we all now know, degeneracy can populate the public realm.

Anonymous said...

Lighten up.
Also There shouldn't be a nativity scene or any other religious scenes in public parks.
Enjoy festivus.

Joe Moretti said...

Sorry George, I have no problem with this art work. I have more of a problem with the high property values and rent in Long Island City.

Anonymous said...

A mere reflection of our disgusting city leaders. Who ever signed off on this should be fired!

Who Would Have Known? said...

A bear sticking his schlong in an aroused man's bunghole - and this feted as "art" in a PUBLIC park where school children visit- and Moretti has "no problem" with it. You got kids, Joe?

Anonymous said...

Why not set the horrid thing on fire and get rid of it? It is NOT great for little kids (or ANY kids) to have to see such a perv thing--a man being raped by a critter and getting his own jollies from it.

georgetheatheist said...

Look at the last photo on my blog site. Notice that this so-called "work of art" has its back to the main entrance of the public park. Visitors cant see what's "going on" until they stumble upon it. Also, it's positioned clandestinely as far away from the park entrance as possible. You see even Socrates Sculpture Park and the "artist" as well are ashamed of it's very existence. If not, why wasn't it positioned closer to the main gate and proudly, prominently facing visitors entering?

Anonymous said...

Maybe you will appreciate this classic George...

More Art?

Joe Moretti said...

Anon: A bear sticking his schlong in an aroused man's bunghole

_____________

That is your suggestion, from what I see the bear does not have a schlong nor is it sticking this invisible schlong in a aroused man's bunghole and just how do you see "an aroused man's bunghole".

I am amazed that many of you who see this, this is what you see, because like I said with the exception of a man's penis, which does not look aroused to me, there is no bear schlong nor aroused man's bunghole, you all are putting that on this. This is how you all are thinking.

As far as kids, please give me a break, they see more shit watching reality shows (which more kids will see than this art)or MTV or Miley Cyrus or listening to any rap song, which many kids listen to.

I feel this is being way blown out of proportion from the puritanical minds. Solution, do not bring kids to this art while it is up.

I mean this is New York City, not some one horse town in the middle of the Bible belt.

Joe Moretti said...

By the way do you really think kids looking at this would turn this into some erotic fantasy like many of you have in your mind. I am sure just as I would have as a young kid seeing this, kids would laugh at this and then a few minutes later talk about something else.

The only issue here is because this is a public park, should this have passed, otherwise some of you are making this a way bigger deal than it is.

Jerry Rotondi said...

Wake up and smell the coffee .

It's certainly graphic, but I don't think that this qualifies to be considered hard core pornography, George.

This is just a metaphorical depiction of how us Queensites keep getting in the "backdoor"--from shady self serving political hacks.

You should never turn your back on a politician no matter how much you think you can trust him (or her).

I think that Queens voters are partially responsible (maybe fully) for their own rape, by being so ignorant of their politicians' real intents.

My advice:
Don't wear a mini skirt in the voting booth!

Anonymous said...

LOL!
We do have to BEAR a lot in NYC, don't we?

I often feel like an unchaperoned Goldilocks abandoned by her parents in a sex club.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Teddy bear....
the honey pot is located around the front.

You just hit the fudge factory.

Anonymous said...

Maybe that's Councilman JVB in the bear suit....or the recipient of the bear hug.

Anonymous said...

It think it sucks as art.
Art depends on more than being just confrontational, but you're talking as if todays kids are innocent know nothings.
How old are you, Granny?

Anonymous said...

You can debate the merits of art.

But the real issues raised here is the hijacking of every aspect of our lives (including our tax money to support the arts) for the benefit of developers and the benefit of politicians trolling for votes.

Think of your block and how your taxes could make the lives of you and your family better.

Then think of that big semi-empty auditorium that costs millions and leaks buckets of red ink to create a photo-op for a politician pandering to a scattering of Nepalese folk singers.

Then go to the Brooklyn Museum, the Bronx Botanical Park or just about anyplace in Manhattan.

Miss McGillicuddy, the Elementary School Math Teacher said...

Miss McGillicuddy: "Mister Moretti says that the man's penis does not "look aroused" to him. Let's all recite what we learned in class today for him."

The innocent school children: "Yes Miss McGillicuddy...The angle of the dangle is proportional to the bootie of the cutie and the heat of the meat."

Miss McGillicuddy: "Thank you children. You all get an A."

Councilman Danny Dromm said...

That's not Jimmy in the bear suit. It's me.

Trick or treat! (Am I too late for Halloween?)

Ayn Rand said...

"By a selective re-creation, art isolates and integrates those aspects of reality which represent man’s fundamental view of himself and of existence. Out of the countless number of concretes—of single, disorganized and (seemingly) contradictory attributes, actions and entities—an artist isolates the things which he regards as metaphysically essential and integrates them into a single new concrete that represents an embodied abstraction.

For instance, consider two statues of man: one as a GREEK GOD, the other as a DEFORMED MEDIEVAL MONSTROSITY [Looks familiar?]. Both are metaphysical estimates of man; both are projections of the artist’s view of man’s nature; both are concretized representations of the philosophy of their respective cultures.

Art is a concretization of metaphysics. Art brings man’s concepts to the perceptual level of his consciousness and allows him to grasp them directly, as if they were percepts.

This is the psycho-epistemological function of art and the reason of its importance in man’s life (and the crux of the Objectivist esthetics)." - The Psycho-Epistemology of Art, The Romantic Manifesto, p.19


Artists of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose but your pre-conceived fallacies!

Anonymous said...

You dont see this here in Utah.

georgetheatheist said...

"..male and female He created them..." - Genesis 1:26-28

Half the human race is female.

Can you imagine the outcry if the figure being raped was a woman?

Missing Foundation said...

Distracting sophomoric comments by the hacks notwithstanding, nothing can stop the growing sense that Queens is being held back by a tiny group of people that have hijacked our resources and are misusing them for their own rather limited vision of the world.

The growing community of arts and artists is one area that soon be impossible for them to control.

Joe Moretti said...

You all need to really chill out.

First off how do you know that "bear" is male, I mean I don't see any penis. What makes you think this is rape or anything else.

If the supposed man in front was not showing a penis, no one would be bothered by this.

So in reality, you New Yorkers are all getting uppity over a penis.

Are you the same folks that got all upset years ago when Janet Jackson tit flashed for a mini-second.

Just get over it. Amazing the small things people get upset about.

Anonymous said...

Ann Rand -

When critical philosophers point the finger to reality, orthodox philosophers study the finger.

Anonymous said...

Making the case for public displays of erect cock now are we? Try putting this on your "private" front lawn and see how quickly you'd find trouble. But, a public park...no problem...maybe it serves some public utility as a jacket hanger!

Anonymous said...

Lets make thisart interactive.
I dare someone,(clothing is optonal) to stand in front of, or behind the figures,take picture and post on internet. I double dare 2 people to complete the conga-line. Triple dare, etc.

Helen said...


That doesn't belong in a public park. It's disgusting.



Joe Moretti said...

Anon:
That doesn't belong in a public park. It's disgusting.

_____________________

But homeless people do, grilling in parks where it is prohibited, illegal vendors, mounds of garbage, etc, that all belongs in a public park.

Anonymous said...

Who removed the man's cloths?

Anonymous said...

I dont think the opposition to statue is supported by psychology of children. They may not be making interpretation that bear is raping man.