It might be the kind of thing that could serve as a case study in college communications classes in the future.
Is artwork portraying a head-less aroused woman taking a photo of her breasts appropriate for the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens where children of all ages will have an opportunity to see it? Is the goal of art simply to spark conversation, as one member of the Arts Council feels?
If so, would a woman taking a photo of her vagina be appropriate since it would likely spark discussion? A gay couple having sex? Would it be appropriate outside a school? Is it simply the ongoing coarseness of society where anything goes today?
The art was done by Chinese artist Yu Chang. There was no explanation for it at the arboretum although an Overland Park official has since tried to explain it.
“The piece is saying focus on your mind, heart and soul. When we meet somebody, don’t focus on that other stuff. Focus on the mind, body and soul,” noted Overland Park’s Communications Director Sean Reilly.
Would a visitor feel the artwork shows it is normal behavior for a woman to take pictures of her breasts? Does it say “sexting” is appropriate for young females? That females are simply sex objects?
An interesting discussion could also focus on how you would handle this issue from a PR perspective. First officials should have known the sculpture would cause a backlash.
However, that didn’t seem to be the case as Reilly almost seemed to be proud that the art is attracting some new visitors.
”We had a group of middle-aged men out there last Friday looking at it,” said Reilly. “I can tell you that that’s not the typical demographic we see there. Some people have come to the visitors’ center asking just to see that piece.”
Reilly didn’t say how long the men were out by the statue or what they were doing while admiring/fondling it.
Joanne Hughes was walking along the path at the arboretum with her young daughters when they came upon the sculpture. She has been attempting to have it removed since then despite facing harsh criticism for her moral stand.
“We’re having a lot of problems with youth sexting in our culture today and I just feel like this kind of shows how to do it,” Hughes said.
Sarah VanLanduyt, executive director of the Arts Council of Johnson County, was interviewed by Eric Adler at the Kansas City Star and said she thinks the arboretum sculpture is doing exactly what public art is meant to do.
“The artwork is not meant to be pornographic. It is meant to spark this kind of conversation,” she said. “It’s meant to cultivate a very interesting dialogue.”
It certainly is creating the “interesting dialogue” VanLanduyt hoped for.
Interestingly, if it really was a piece of “art” why would the Kansas City Star refuse to put it in its print edition, but only post it on its Web site? Why would KMBC and KCTV blur the sculpture so that the breasts are not visible?
As a rule of thumb one could argue that “art work” that is not appropriate for a newspaper or TV station to show might not be appropriate for school children visiting an arboretum to see plant life.
As one might have expected, KC Star editorial columnist Yael Abouhalkah, who helps set the moral and ethical tone at the McClatchy-owned paper, endorses the statue and has urged Overland Park officials to keep it (6/5). Officials have agreed with him.
Afternoon KMBZ talkers Scott Parks and Dana Wright (6/5) both thought the sculpture was appropriate in a public setting. However, Wright was somewhat unsure if the “art” would be appropriate outside her son’s school. NIMBY?