Hunting The Muse

Jan Herman: The Juice is

Jan Herman: The Juice is one of the many corporate weblogs that we see peppered here and there. This one supposedly about arts and entertainment, although it really comes across as more of a columnist's excuse to not work as hard on his columns.

He wrote the other day about his thoughts on Tumbling Woman a sculpture created in response to the people that jumped from the towers on 9/11. It depicts a naked woman tumbling through the air, upside down, head first.

It was put on display in a public place (Rockefeller Center) until people complained and it was draped and removed. There's been a big outcry about it most about people like Jan crying "Censorship!".

I wrote him disagreeing (as I guess about a thousand other people did). My own disagreement centers around the fact that this isn't some control freak trying to pass judgement on what is art and what isn't. The decision to remove it was prompted by a public that found the work upsetting.

The way I see it is that people are grieving, are trying to come to terms with 9/11 on their own terms, and Rockefeller Center is a public place. The art isn't at an art exhibit, and it is deliberately upsetting/triggering in nature. True, there are going to be things that happen that trigger more grief in us when we don't expect it, but an artwork on display is calculated. I applaud art that seeks to elicit emotional reaction in people, but eliciting it at the expense of being able to express it? You're walking through a public place like Rockefeller Plaza, you see a sculpture that is described as a tribute to the folks that jumped from the towers, depicting a woman that looks like landing on her head. Do you actually feel safe expressing any grief right there in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza? So you're faced with the choice of expressing it right there, or of swallowing it? I just don't think that's what art is all about.

I think the outcry about Tumbling Woman is not about the existence of the art, or of judging the quality of it - I think it's more just about the placement of it. And to leap past the viewpoints of those most affected by the art and immediately scream "Censorship!!" is pretty offensive in my mind. Posted by Curt at September 21, 2002 07:53 PM