Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Whinging and Whining

I've done my share of bitching about the fact that people do not clean up after their dogs here. It has now been put into perspective by this story:

Inflatable dog turd sculpture escapes Swiss museum, wreaks havoc
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:54 AM ET
CBC News

A powerful gust of wind recently swept a house-sized sculpture of dog feces from its display outside a Swiss museum, an art official in Berne said Monday.

The incident took place on the night of July 31, but details of the artwork's escape — and the havoc it caused before its eventual landing — emerged just this week.

The massive inflatable sculpture, created by U.S. contemporary artist Paul McCarthy and titled Complex Shit, is part of the Paul Klee Centre's exhibit East of Eden: A Garden Show. McCarthy's piece was displayed outdoors, among "weird and wonderful objects [forming] an animated kind of front garden," according to the museum website.

The sculpture is usually contained by a safety system that deflates it during instances of bad weather. However, the system failed on this occasion and the work escaped from the Klee Centre's garden, museum director Juri Steiner told Agence France-Presse.

The wind carried the work away, knocking down a power line and breaking a window at a nearby orphanage before falling to the ground about 200 metres from the centre.

The museum had yet to contact McCarthy about the incident, Steiner said. Officials are also contemplating whether to return the piece to display.


And I've always thought of the Swiss as such a tidy people.

12 agosto - San Erocolano

6 comments:

sageweb said...

Complex shit...A title like that wouldnt make me run to see it.

Sling said...

Holy flyin' shit!..

more cowbell said...

I actually love the title. Puts me in mind of my life.

I was just imagining how it would be to see that thing blowing toward you in a rainstorm.

Willym said...

I admire the restraint that most of my friends have shown in commenting on this.

What I'm waiting to see is how many people get to it by Googling the tag: Dog Turds!

Doralong said...

I've heard about the shit hitting the fan before.. but never an orphanage.

Elizabeth said...

What in the world is Sir Paul doing making giant turds? I guess if you're a Beatle you can make any old piece of shit and pass it off as art....