BS: Imitation is--Flattery or competition?

Subject: BS: Imitation is--Flattery or competition?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 01:18 PM

This was in Art Daily today. I dunno. One mermaid is art. Two or more cheapens the concept.


Local Woman Immortalized in Bronze as Folkestone's Mermaid




The selection ends the artist's public search for a model from the town to become immortalised as "The Folkestone Mermaid".


FOLKESTONE.- Georgina Baker has been selected as Folkestone's answer to Copenhagen's famous "Little Mermaid" statue. Local resident Georgina will strike the distinctive "Mermaid" pose as the model for a life-size bronze statue being cast by celebrated artist Cornelia Parker for the Folkestone Triennial 2011.

The selection ends the artist's public search for a model from the town to become immortalised as "The Folkestone Mermaid". When the competition process was launched in June, former Turner Prize nominee Cornelia Parker said, "This is not a beauty contest. I am not looking for a look-alike of the idealised Copenhagen Mermaid, but for a real person, a free spirit, so any shape or size welcome!"

Local women over the age of 18 were invited to enter by sending in a photograph of themselves in swimwear before a final shortlist of candidates was drawn up from which Georgina was chosen. The bronze statue will sit on rocks looking out to sea just outside the harbour wall.

Georgina Baker was born in Folkestone in 1972. A keen scuba diver, Georgina began swimming as a baby and to this day she swims two miles a week. Georgina enjoys the arts, is a qualified interior designer and aerobics instructor, and works part time helping disabled people through physiotherapy.

Georgina, who lives in Sandgate, Folkestone with her husband and two children, said, "I am really pleased to have been selected as Cornelia's model and my children are excited that their mum has been chosen to be the 'Folkestone Mermaid'."

Cornelia Parker was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997, is a Royal Academician and was awarded an OBE in 2010. Her 2010 solo exhibition 'Doubtful Sound' was recently on show at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. Her work was included in the 16th Sydney Biennale in 2008 and in the 8th Sharjah Biennial, 2007. She had major solo exhibitions at Birmingham's Ikon Gallery and the Museo De Arte de Lima, Peru in 2007. Other notable solo exhibitions include Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin; ICA, Philadelphia; Aspen Museum of Art, Colorado; Chicago Arts Club and the ICA, Boston. Her work is represented in many international collections including The Arts Council of England, Tate Gallery, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Subject: RE: BS: Imitation is--Flattery or competition?
From: gnomad
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 08:40 AM

I don't see any reason why a subject once treated by one artist should thereafter become taboo to all others. Think of all the great works of art, how many of them are new or derivative treatments of previously-covered subjects, especially religious one.

A question might arise if the new sculpture were to prove so excessively derivative as to be mere pastiche. It's a bit like copying someone's arrangement of a song - a very grey area, the more so because while a performance is ephemeral a sculpture may last for millennia.

All I would ask of a new sculpture is that it be interesting, and preferably pleasing, in itself. Of the world population only a few people will see the Copenhagen original, another few will see the Folkestone statue, if each of these groups is pleased then I see no problem, though I would not like every port to have one as I doubt that the standard would be maintained.

One thing I like about the proposal is that they are intending to use a real person as model (38 yo mother of 2) rather than some plastic celebrity.

If the concern is that repeating a subject somehow cheapens it, well I grew up close to several mermaid 'sculptures' (Victorian, cast iron, and identical apart from their graffiti) and suggest that they are in no way spoiled by the later Eriksen statue.

Subject: RE: BS: Imitation is--Flattery or competition?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 09:34 AM

My objection is not to the choice of model, which I heartily approve. The point of the thread is that what was a unique statement is now being diluted. If every major seaport, say Hamburg and New York, etc., were to have such a statue it would change the message.

New York actually has a related statue. Related, that is, in terms of function. It is located next to Pier A, at the Battery, and shows people being brought from the sea. It relates to that city's maritime tradition and is very powerful.

If other cities were to use the same sort of approach, there will be a beautiful "gallery" of art instead of a continual reworking of one idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Imitation is--Flattery or competition?
From: mauvepink
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 10:04 AM

Tom Bliss wrote a song about "The Spirit of Ecstacy (The Whisper)", sculpted by Charles Sykes on Eleanor Thornton who was in a discreet liaison with second Lord Montagu of Beaulieu at the time. Sadly she got killed when the ship they were travelling on got torpedoed. She was secretary to Montagu. That statue became the model for the Silver Lady on the front of Rolls-Royce cars. The story makes for a wonderful song and Tom Bliss did it great credit.

This is what can happen when someone gets sculpted and I can think of no better example.

a) Spirit of Ecstacy

b) Spirit of Ecstacy

How soon before we have a "Mermaid of Folkstone" tune?

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Imitation is--Flattery or competition?
From: gnomad
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 03:49 PM

Have these statues some function beyond pleasing the eye of the passer-by?

If it should perhaps be to celebrate a local legend then your wished-for gallery is under way, witness the Hartlepool Monkey or the Boy with Leaking Boot. The latter has been enthusiastically adopted in Cleethorpes, though that is only one of a number of representations of him worldwide. I am sure many other places have offerings too, Morcambe's Eric, for instance, being a legend of a different kind. There are quite a few in inland places as well.

I wouldn't want to be overrun with little mermaids (I should have the chance, statues of her I mean) but AFAIK this is only one copy on the theme in over 100 years, it doesn't feel excessive to me.