Penis hammered off statue
By AMY CARMICHAEL
VANCOUVER (CP) - The penis in the middle of a small-town controversy has been hammered out of the public eye.
Vandals attacked the appendage on a nude statue erected in middle of Penticton, B.C.'s, roundabout at the entrance to the marina area. The sculpture's lack of clothing upset mayor David Perry and several citizens who demanded it be taken down, shortly after it was unveiled earlier in the month. Michael Hermesh, the creator of the piece, was disgusted by the uproar and childish vandalism of his work.
"Someone said to me, 'well, what did you expect, putting a nude statue up in Penticton.'
"That's like saying to a woman who's been raped, 'what did you expect wearing a skirt that goes above your knees.' Disgusting."
Mayor Perry said Penticton is not as open to such nude artworks as Toronto and other larger cities and noted public tax money was involved in commissioning the project.
The installation features a nude, two-metre man holding a suitcase, surrounded by 24 old suitcases.
City council held a special meeting in January to decide what to do about it.
Curtis Collins, director of the Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, convinced Hermesh to obscure the genitalia with a square steel plate.
Collins said the plate, in fact, drew more attention to the figure's midsection and made the work look ridiculous.
He removed it, saying the piece was never meant to be provocative.
Mayor Perry said he didn't want to upset the piece but was concerned about the approval process for public art going forward.
He doesn't want a repeat of previous community uproar over a proposed - and later rejected - teddy bear sculpture next to City Hall.
Hermesh said the controversy was never about sex.
"What's upsetting people is that someone would have the audacity to be free and create something without listening to other people.
"What is the next artist supposed to do now? Put a block of concrete in, make sure it doesn't offend people, put fence around it and hire security guards?"
Hermesh hopes the city will commission him to repair the sculpture. The ankles have been snapped off and the suitcases surrounding the nude were knocked over.
In the meantime, Hermesh is trying to work through his anger and finish an installation for the Simon Patrich Gallery in Vancouver.
"It's like being censored for the second time, after having to nail a metal plate to the sculpture. It's like all of a sudden, I have a silent critic and I don't know what's right or wrong. Before I worked with no consideration for that."
