Palm Springs residents complain about AIDS memorial “anus” statue!

[marylander1940]

Locals outraged over proposed Palm Springs AIDS Memorial that looks like a gaping, well, you know…

WWW.QUEERTY.COM

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The Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Task Force, which designed the statue, says it will work on a revised model...

 

One thing is inspiring, other thing is confusing or possibly mocking...

[CuriousByNature]

I think it looks like a hemorrhoid cushion. Art is art, and what is considered art is in the eye of the beholder.  Perhaps at the very least, the sculpture will attract proctologist conventions to Palm Springs.

[marylander1940]

8 hours ago, CuriousByNature said:

I think it looks like a hemorrhoid cushion. Art is art, and what is considered art is in the eye of the beholder.  Perhaps at the very least, the sculpture will attract proctologist conventions to Palm Springs.

[+ sync]

The controversy is all lost on me.  I guess my imagination needs work.  I'm not seeing anything about it that reminds me of an anus.  

[+ Charlie]

It doesn't suggest ANYTHING to me, which is why I think it fails as a memorial.

[Becket]

Half a million is a bit much for a butt hole.

Noticed it looks more like a backside from.....well.....the backside.

[jeezifonly]

Marie's Sculpture | Everybody Loves Raymond | TV Land

BIT.LY

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Marie tries to donate a sculpture she made to the church auction, but the...

 

[CuriousByNature]

2 minutes ago, jeezifonly said:

Marie's Sculpture | Everybody Loves Raymond | TV Land

BIT.LY

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Marie tries to donate a sculpture she made to the church auction, but the...

 

Reminds me of high school art class, seeing a slideshow of 20th century American paintings.  Muffled giggles all around when slides of Georgia O'Keefe's flower series came up on the screen - yes, we were immature.

[soloyo215]

8 hours ago, sync said:

The controversy is all lost on me.  I guess my imagination needs work.  I'm not seeing anything about it that reminds me of an anus.  

I'm right with you. I have seen plenty of anuses in my life, and none that look anything like that, nor do I know (and hope never to) of an anus of that size. That's just typical art pursuing fame by creating controversy.

[marylander1940]

Example of contemporary art AIDS memorials!

San Francisco

 

Visit the Key West AIDS Memorial

KEYWESTAIDSMEMORIAL.ORG

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Visit the Key West AIDS Memorial The Key West AIDS Memorial is located at White Street and Atlantic Boulevard at the entrance to the Edward B. Knight Pier. The...

Brighton

 

New Yorkers lost to AIDS

 

I would create a memorial inspired by this iconic demonstration!

[+ nycman]

It doesn’t bother me that it looks (vaguely) like a giant concrete butthole.

What bothers me is it’s just bad art. 

Period. 

 

[+ Charlie]

2 hours ago, marylander1940 said:

Example of contemporary art AIDS memorials!

San Francisco

 

Visit the Key West AIDS Memorial

KEYWESTAIDSMEMORIAL.ORG

---

Visit the Key West AIDS Memorial The Key West AIDS Memorial is located at White Street and Atlantic Boulevard at the entrance to the Edward B. Knight Pier. The...

Brighton

 

New Yorkers lost to AIDS

 

I would create a memorial inspired by this iconic demonstration!

I got lost in memories as I read through the list of names of those on the Key West memorial, which included the names of three men I had known when I was young and carefree, and didn't even realize had died of AIDS. That's what a memorial should do. Rest in peace, Mitty, Larry and Ken.

[Guest]

12 hours ago, sync said:

... I'm not seeing anything about it that reminds me of an anus.  

That innocence is so sweet! 😉

[Luv2play]

On 9/26/2023 at 1:12 PM, Charlie said:

It doesn't suggest ANYTHING to me, which is why I think it fails as a memorial.

If it was painted rose, it would look like a rosebud, common in fistee bottoms. I see it all the time in fisting porn flics. Personally doesn't appeal to me.

I liked the comment "this needs to be probed further".

[+ Charlie]

34 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

If it was painted rose, it would look like a rosebud, common in fistee bottoms. I see it all the time in fisting porn flics. Personally doesn't appeal to me.

I liked the comment "this needs to be probed further".

As I remember from my old list of ways that HIV is transmitted, fisting per se is not one of the ways that one gets AIDS. (I worked for a few years on an AIDS information hotline, and we got calls regularly from an hysterical man who was worried because he had put his finger in a female prostitute's ass, and he was afraid he might have been infected with HIV from that act. No matter how often we reassured him, he couldn't get over that fear.)

[soloyo215]

Sorry, but I still fail to see anything remotely related to an anus there. The bigger question (at least to me) is, why does that matter anyway? If it looks like an anus, or if it was intentionally created to look like an anus, what then?

[Guest]

18 hours ago, soloyo215 said:

Sorry, but I still fail to see anything remotely related to an anus there...

A bit lacking in imagination, perhaps? Compare it to this iPhone cover:

[soloyo215]

Thanks for the visual help. I guess I'm running out of imagination.

[+ sync]

5 hours ago, Unicorn said:

A bit lacking in imagination, perhaps? Compare it to this iPhone cover:

Perhaps an overactive imagination.  

[marylander1940]

3 minutes ago, Lucky said:

I wonder what how similar thread about AIDS Day might look like. We certainly lost more people then than we did in Vietnam, not to undermine those losses.

What do you think about this project?

[+ Lucky]

They should try something like San Francisco did with their AIDS Memorial.

We didn't suffer the loss of buttholes so much as we suffered the loss of humans.

Edited December 2, 2024 by Lucky

[Beancounter]

Looks like a giant life saver piece of candy to me.  The color fits a desert landscape.   I like the front of the sculpture,  the back side not so much.  In the context of an AIDS memorial I’m prone to think it represents the circle of life. 

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

I still think Key West's memorial was done best.

It's a great space, it's well-located and it's easy to understand.

The number of names etched into the memorial are awfully sobering.

[BSR]

I agree that it looks like an anus.  Since that can't possibly be the artist's intention, what da heck is the memorial supposed to represent??

[+ Charlie]

The artist has done a completely new memorial sculpture, and the city has just accepted it.