AIBU - Princess Diana new statue

[ForeverAintEnough3]

She was a style icon yet she’s in one of those frumpy waist belts that were only in fashion briefly. The face does nothing to represent how beautiful she was. It’s too harsh.

@TheWeeDonkeyFella

Re the 'hidden child, looking at photos online he's very clear from the side view.

Yes the side view is better.

I really don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't that!

She was known as the people's princess and I suppose I am on one of the people so feel qualified to say when that cover came off I was

very disappointed! So many aspects of it I found rather awful but for the benefit of MN I will just stick with disappointed.

Doesn't look anything like her. Bizarre choice of medium too.

*material I mean

That's such a shame it's so awful and the children do not resemble William and Harry at all

I do think it’s odd. The staging is off, it might have been better if she was sitting with a (younger) child on her knee, if they absolutely had to include a child. But this doesn’t look quite right - the children are out of proportion, particularly the girl, she doesn’t look like a child at all. But most of all, Diana’s best qualities (for all her faults) were that she was warm and quite fun in her interactions with people. None of this comes across here.
But I assume her sons were OK with it so my opinion is just that, it doesn’t matter.

I don't understand why people feel it's ok to criticise this. William and Harry commissioned this as a tribute to their mum. The mum they lost as very young boys, and then were left to process their grief within the emotionally inadequate royal family and the glare of the media! It doesn't matter what we think. It's a tangible memorial for people to visit. Would that fact not be of more significance for the people who love Diana and her boys rather than this distasteful criticism that seems to be prevalent since the unveiling?

It's a piece of 'art', @JadeandGreen. Of course we can express an opinion on it. As all the reviewers in the newspapers are.
We're not walking up to William and Harry and saying "That statue of your mum is shit. What were you thinking?". We're discussing it between ourselves, and there are matters of taste involved.

@SpindleWhorl

It's supposed to be her at 60.

Is it?

@omgthepain

That's such a shame it's so awful and the children do not resemble William and Harry at all

No, especially as one’s a girl!

@JadeandGreen it’s a very public tribute- the commissioning of the statue was announced and the media were invited to the unveiling.

If the family wanted to commemorate Princess Diana’s life in private they could have.

It's taken them four years yo come up with that?? It's quite...underwhelming.

No shade on William or Harry. It took three years for the committee to get the fountain sorted. Has it ever worked for any length of time. It took the committee four years to get this sorted. As a country could we not come up with something more imaginative and moving than this? I just think it's a shame that this is an opportunity wasted.

@saraclara Just because the media are giving opinions on it doesn't make it ok. And no, people are not walking up to William and Harry saying "That statue of your mum is shit" but they will be absolutely aware of the public response to it.

@OutwiththeOutCrowd

I wish the Chinese sculptress Luo Li Rong had been given the commission. She would have brought lightness, joy and movement into her representation of Diana.

Here's an example of her work, showing what might have been...

That is a stunning piece!

Diana’s right arm seems really long and out of proportion and her mouth doesn’t seem right either. It would have been lovely to have seen a statue which captured her accurately but I don’t think that’s the case in the one revealed today.

@omgthepain

That's such a shame it's so awful and the children do not resemble William and Harry at all

Well no…. One is the wrong sex and one the wrong race so you’d think not

Maybe, just maybe, because it isn’t meant to be William and Harry?? Jeez.

I think it's hideous and looks like a bloke in drag. She was so beautiful but the face of the statue is borderline ugly IMO. The dark grey colour doesn't help matters.

Very disappointing. I think a statue should either be a realistic recognisable representation of the person or convey something about them, like Diana's kindness or lightness of spirit at her best. This is a stolid lumpen mess. I hope her sons can see more in it.

The girl child is quite clearly Patsy Kensit.

@JadeandGreen

I don't understand why people feel it's ok to criticise this. William and Harry commissioned this as a tribute to their mum. The mum they lost as very young boys, and then were left to process their grief within the emotionally inadequate royal family and the glare of the media! It doesn't matter what we think. It's a tangible memorial for people to visit. Would that fact not be of more significance for the people who love Diana and her boys rather than this distasteful criticism that seems to be prevalent since the unveiling?

Give over

*BanditoShipman

omgthepain

That's such a shame it's so awful and the children do not resemble William and Harry at all

Well no…. One is the wrong sex and one the wrong race so you’d think not hmm

Maybe, just maybe, because it isn’t meant to be William and Harry?? Jeez.*

😂😂😂😂

It probably would have looked a lot warmer in bronze, looks like a ghost. But the statue unveiling brought her boys together so I'm sure she'd have been pleased. I presume it had her close family's total approval so that's all that matters, really!

Perhaps the girl is meant to represent what Harry would have looked like if he had transitioned when he was a boy... the Harriet he could have been. The BAME boy clearly represents the child she might have had with Dodi, had she married him. It all makes total nonsense, from a PC view.

I would have preferred something like this. Diana looking at the children and holding them.

Really very odd