Steve or BTW ... anybody know who to contact in NY gov offices to register objection?

I don't know, feels like there are quite a lot of far sicker things out there. It's art....whether we like it or not. It's opportunistic....which seems to be what this artist excels at.

The City also shouldn't allow a memorial for a stricken animal in Central Park to be used in this manner and tying Barbaro to it makes little or no genuine sense. The people behind this are stealing this opportunity in a manner that simply shouldn't be permitted by the City of New York.

It's a political statement tied to Barbaroslaw - questionable in my mind about permanent installation in the park.

Wonder who are this gallery's best patrons? If any are NY racing people?

One of the reasons that the Arts get less support than they used to is that people (like me) fear that their money will go to radical causes and artists like this one.

its art alright. but very poor taste to let it take place in the park.

I fully support an artists freedom to offend me in public.

I don't like when a hard-copy, permanent representation of political actions being brought before Congress is placed on government property under the excuse of "public art", however.

More to this than just a statue I find offensive, for me. It's what is behind the statue (the political agenda of the gallery owner, barbaroslaw)

I think the most important part of that sentence is the highlighted - that spin is pure, anti-horseracing, Animal Rights propaganda.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...080/1002/rss04

Excerpt.....

A spokeswoman for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation said it has not received an application for a special event permit or a temporary public art permit allowing the unveiling.

* * *

I wonder if there's a chance it'll be denied... (?).

No idea how such things work.

You mean they weren't telling the truth....and it isn't scheduled to be unveiled on April 30th?

Poor Taste , I'm sickened :(

No, I just thought it was interesting that no application had been filed.

Thought maybe there was some loophole where they could be stopped but i checked here.....

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_thing...uidelines.html

Any PR is good PR but maybe a silent email-a-thon to the Commissioner, Dept. of Parks and Recreation?

I'm just thinking out loud.

Just incase.....

http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildpr.html

Oh, and i do applaud you for your eloquent comments..... had to (finally) say that.

I think the memorial might bring new fans to the game. I have no problem with it.

Maybe it's just me - but the overwhelming majority of these so called great "pieces of art" are things that if left in my possession to keep - I would donate to the nearest garbage dump ASAP.

Of course, I only make that statement if the stuff was given to me and I wasn't under the assumption it was worth anything.

If someone gave me the Mona Lisa - I think the following would occur with my thought process when I first look at it....

* I wonder what she would have looked like without clothes about 5 years earlier.

* I wonder is she was an ego maniac, and paid someone to do that picture for her - or if some sad lonesome artist tried to score some pu tang by painting her a pic of herself.

* Crinkle, trash can.

Why?, because he used the name Barbaro in his exhibit? If it was called 'a procrastinators merry-go-round' would you be offended?

To my untrained eye, it looked like someone got a start on making a Merry-Go-Round, but got bored and quit after just having the basic structure of two horses finished.

Much ado about nothing.

This was my favorite of the comments leftatthegate quoted:

<<The sculpture is just horrible, why in God’s name would put a horse on is back. Our horese are worrier’s and proud animals. Barbaro should never be on his back, proud and upright is were he should be. Maybe you should rethink this.>>

"Our horese are worrier's." Awesome.

This really made me laugh.

The "artist" is one pathetic waste of oxygen.

I don't like it, but then again I am all for people being able to do whatever they want with their art -- whether it be chocolate Jesus, pubic hair embedded in soap, or whatever else they can dream up, it'd be silly of me to champion their right to offend anyone else and then get mad over this.

I think in situations like this, even registering complaints just gives the art and the artist more exposure, which is what they want to begin with. It might be better to just ignore. In fact, if it wasn't for this thread, how many of us would have seen or heard about this piece of "art"?

I wonder if more people would be upset if they did a "Heath Ledger laying face down naked surrounded by pills sculpture" It would be in about the same taste.