# Damn you, University! (sculpture rant) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403 "2010-01-02T16:10:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/21 "2010-01-02T20:15:54Z")
It looks like it should be in Downtown Disney. Maybe not so much if the sunflower thingy was removed. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/22 "2010-01-02T20:21:16Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I like the UT piece. OP, do you suppose you could post some views of it that are less flattering? > > Maybe somebody could Photoshop it into that progressively more ridiculous collage that got born here a couple of years ago. It’s dull, ugly, and has a lot of obvious supports which completely kill the effect she was going for. And that stupid sun looks like cheap Ikea crap, which is not exactly the effect we want as a centerpiece to campus. Are people on the Dope honestly so tacky they don’t see this? ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/23 "2010-01-02T20:44:34Z")
The main crime of the sculpture is that it is demanding to be seen, it’s slap bang in the middle of a walkway and forces folk to walk around it, and obscures their vision of their next way point. Damn thing is on its plinth, surrounded by a little bit of greenery which seems solely for the purpose of isolating itself from passers by, ‘LOOK AT ME’ is what it says - but it has nothing to say - its arrogant twaddle, it’s as if the artist it trying to force you to look at it, when its just an obstruction.If you imagine it without the outrigger part, then its just a pileof badly shaped metal, and it would be less offensive, but the outrigger bit is just reaching out to take up more space and demand that you must walk around further - bit like the trouble maker in the bar with his leg stuck out. I wonder how many people would go out of their way to see it if it were placed somehwere more convenient, like in a deep basement cellar, or even an art gallery. Its pretty crap when enlarge in a browser window, but be insufferable in the real. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/24 "2010-01-02T20:54:55Z")
Plant some bamboo in the ring. Problem solved real quick at the rate it grows. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/25 "2010-01-02T21:18:01Z")
You know, I think I could handle either the sunny part or the windy part, but together they really clash. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/26 "2010-01-02T21:22:30Z")
I thought UT was the University of Texas, a bastion of bad outdoor art. You don’t know bad outdoor art till you’ve been to the campus of UT Austin. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/27 "2010-01-02T21:41:17Z")
It’s tacky yard art. Just cries out for a couple of giant flamingoes beside it. And maybe a pinwheel somewhere in the vicinity. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/28 "2010-01-02T22:13:12Z")
It could be worse. It could be an [actual pile of shit](http://photos.igougo.com/images/p43515-San_Jose-Statue_of_Quetzalcoatl.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/29 "2010-01-02T22:27:41Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Judging by the initial outcry over Cloud Gate, you wouldn’t have thought so. It’s grown on us a lot since then - even if we do annoy the sculptor by calling it “the Bean”. 😃 As I understand it, he eventually got over the indignity and decided that it was an affectionate nickname. Which I think is pretty accurate. Also, it looks like a fucking bean, for heaven’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/30 "2010-01-02T22:29:35Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > [actual pile of shit](http://photos.igougo.com/images/p43515-San_Jose-Statue_of_Quetzalcoatl.jpg). [Infra-red Quetzy n’ Toilets](http://www.sanjose.com/underbelly/unbelly/Sanjose/Quetzy/quetinfra.html) [Aesthetic Crime Scene](http://www.sanjose.com/underbelly/unbelly/Sanjose/Quetzy/quetzy.html) You can practically _feel the love:_ > [@](#): > > Robert Graham’s Quetzalcoatl ascends almost eight feet into the San Jose skyline. The original design called for a three-story edifice of gleaming cast-bronze - it was discarded as being too expensive. > … > Cost of Quetzy: $500,000. A bit much for an uninspiring pile of composite cement resembling a cowpie. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/31 "2010-01-02T22:36:56Z")
Eh. Nowhere near as bad as the [Yellow Peril](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_(sculpture)) (I will admit that doesn’t help you when you have to walk past if every day though) ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/32 "2010-01-02T23:11:33Z")
Well, This thing absolutely looks sophisticated compared to what was outside one of the main libraries at the Univ of Florida. Basically, giant metallic yellow french fries that were not in a box. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/33 "2010-01-02T23:32:22Z")
IMO, it looks a bit silly. And a bit disjointed, as if the sculptor had 2 projects in mind and then just mashed them together. The yellow “sunflower” is by far the worst bit of it. Give me a dead president or general on horseback any day. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/34 "2010-01-02T23:53:52Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Does it at least have a track you can race marbles down? > It looks like it could. That’d be fun. That was my thought, too. The square base on the ground to the left could contain an air pump, that would raise the marbles through the wiggly vertical piece, then release them onto the curved overhead piece, then down a track on the white spiral. If the track would work for coins, or if inserting a coin activated a marble in the track, you could collect enough money in a few years to replace this trash with a nice statue of a dead general on a horse. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/35 "2010-01-03T02:04:39Z")
Barf. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/36 "2010-01-03T02:22:41Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > At least it’s not a 15 foot penis. Your campus would be known as that place with a giant dick. No, then it would be known as the campus with TWO giant dicks. I like it. Googling the name shows a few other POVs and I like them all, dipshit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ivn1188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/37 "2010-01-03T02:51:53Z")
Wow, what a lameass rant. “I don’t like that art, hur hur”. Get the fuck over it already. It’s a sculpture. It doesn’t come alive and assrape you in the middle of the night, and I doubt it’s any more unpleasant to look at than you are, but you don’t see me posting long diatribes about Uglo-Americans intruding upon my visual field. Why don’t you go listen to some They Might Be Giants, you blithering philistine. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/38 "2010-01-03T03:33:07Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Wow, what a lameass rant. “I don’t like that art, hur hur”. Get the fuck over it already. It’s a sculpture. It doesn’t come alive and **assrape** you in the middle of the night, and I doubt it’s any more unpleasant to look at than you are, but you don’t see me posting long diatribes about Uglo-Americans intruding upon my visual field. > > Why don’t you go listen to some They Might Be Giants, you blithering philistine. It certainly assraped someone’s pocketbook. And it certainly wasnt the artist’s. Thats the real crime here. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/39 "2010-01-03T03:51:29Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Wow, what a lameass rant. “I don’t like that art, hur hur”. Get the fuck over it already. It’s a sculpture. It doesn’t come alive and assrape you in the middle of the night, and I doubt it’s any more unpleasant to look at than you are, but you don’t see me posting long diatribes about Uglo-Americans intruding upon my visual field. > > Why don’t you go listen to some They Might Be Giants, you blithering philistine. Oh, no! The Boss of the Pit has disapproved this rant! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403/40 "2010-01-03T04:03:26Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Plant some bamboo in the ring. Problem solved real quick at the rate it grows. Looking at it, I think bamboo growing in amongst the metal would actually look really good. As for the sculpture as is, I don’t like it. Who said it looked like Ikea crap? That pretty much nails it for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-you-university-sculpture-rant/523403.md?page=3)