Statue to honour Wollstonecraft

[MedusasBadHairDay]

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/10/mary-wollstonecraft-finally-honoured-with-statue-after-200-years

It's a naked woman..

Currently reading A Vindication of the Rights of Woman for an OU course, and - unless the tone changes dramatically in the second half of it - I'm not seeing how an idealised nude is the right statue to convey anything about her?

@PhoebeSnow

I like what a previous poster said about Mary being a woman of words, she should be clothed in words. Anyone out there who could start a big blanket with her words embroidered on it? I’m not in London but would happily contribute a square to that.

Lovely idea

Unfortunately, post lockdown I’m more likely to go there with some of Mary’s words written on a bin liner which I will then put over the statue.

Pictures 5 and 8 show the statue from behind and it looks quite masculine with short hair, albeit with a round bottom:

www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/mary-wollstonecraft-naked-sculture-maggi-hambling-b63158.html

The arm proportions being wrong are also more obvious.

@Escapeplanning

And mimmymum's first off the block hauling along one of her usual threads of bitterness and spite. Is she going to have to love the statue on principle?

Those pictures of Janice and Julia generally being ace on Mimmy's tweets!

I loves them both

Has the Independent article been posted yet? www.independent.co.uk/voices/mary-wollstonecraft-statue-maggi-hambling-criticism-b1721059.html?utm_content=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2fRcIMSUaM8YFwHUOxa8ncGUXWaAZduHF7iGhM3Xe8sVCKMhQDMhY8IWo#Echobox=1605100378

Wollstonecraft is not the protagonist here; the spectator is – and the feminist remains faceless among London’s statues, her ground-breaking achievements diminished. It’s less a vindication of the rights of woman, more a vindication of the right to see woman naked.

It’s notoriously difficult to get public art right, that difficult balance of nuance, freely expressed creativity and one-shot impact

Which the writer of the article below thinks was not achieved here

www.standard.co.uk/culture/mary-wollstonecraft-statue-nude-b63009.html

Well yes it is, but there are at least 3 examples on here where it actually looks quite easy (even allowing for the dictum that the art conceals itself) - the Prestonpans witch, the seated Virginia Woolf and the woman and children in Govan.

Off the top of my head James Joyce's statue in Dublin is equally engaging as indeed are several others in Dublin. Stavanger has taken the same approach as Dublin and has several interesting and quirky statues of famous and real people. It’s over 30 years since I was in Stavanger and 20 since I was in Dublin yet they are still memorable.

@Malahaha

Has the Independent article been posted yet? www.independent.co.uk/voices/mary-wollstonecraft-statue-maggi-hambling-criticism-b1721059.html?utm_content=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2fRcIMSUaM8YFwHUOxa8ncGUXWaAZduHF7iGhM3Xe8sVCKMhQDMhY8IWo#Echobox=1605100378

Wollstonecraft is not the protagonist here; the spectator is – and the feminist remains faceless among London’s statues, her ground-breaking achievements diminished. It’s less a vindication of the rights of woman, more a vindication of the right to see woman naked.

That's an excellent article.

Thank you sandy draws badly

I have just been to see it - worse in real life than in the pictures. What was actually lovely in these Covid times, and as I live alone, was to spend twenty minutes or so chatting to different people who had come to see it too (everyone I spoke to disliked it)

snork! at least it was not totally useless then!

I suspect it will become an object of derision moving forward. People clothing her in all kinds of stuff, leaving message, defiling it.

The artist put herself in the centre of this work. And her repudiation of the public's critique is all about "you hoipolloi don't GET my art. You are too literal. You need a fine, creative and deep mind to appreciate all the subtleties of ART."

I went to art school. I dinnae like it...

"This is a monument to Maggie Hamblin not Mary Wollstonecraft."

Absolutely this ^ .

I’ve just realised what it reminds me of... give it a cigar and it’s a slightly skinnier version of the buck angel silver statue... (without the tats).

Hate it. I was so excited about the statue and then I saw what they'd done, put a naked aspirational female body on top of a faceless mass of others. Horrid.

The Critic has a good article and a lovely close-up of that MASSIVE bush/knob/whatever it is. (Is a dick hidden inside there?)

thecritic.co.uk/a-metal-barbie-on-the-crest-of-an-143000-turd/?fbclid=IwAR3kFeZp3VQofZSRIup-SqHNimMuAcWreIdevRozjSfYjP1431e9l0gHLEI

Of course the narrative on Twitter has now turned to "there are women in Poland fighting abortions and you're worrying about this?", as if it isn't possible to simultaneously care about the Polish abortion ban and a massively insulting memorial to a towering female figure in our history. It's so disingenuous. Most of the people espousing the argument care about more than one thing at the same time, maybe they just don't think women can. I should get off Twitter tbh.

We contributed to the fundraiser - the kids with their pocket money and in other times were planning on attending the unveiling. It’s a bit disappointing but I guess the statue isn’t her it’s a metaphor for her beliefs.We contributed to the fundraiser - the kids with their pocket money and in other times were planning on attending the unveiling. It’s a bit disappointing but I guess the statue isn’t her it’s a metaphor for her beliefs.

@MercedesDeMonteChristo (sorry to tag you, it always seems a bit presumptive) but i wondered what the fundraiser actually said it was for? Because if I'd known about it, I'd have donated for a statue "of" her or "to commemorate" her. But if I'd seen this think I'd have wanted my money back. But it all hinges on how they sold it in the first place.

The pubic area looks like a seriously bad case of some sort of STD

@DidoLamenting

The pubic area looks like a seriously bad case of some sort of STD

Was sculpted by a young minion for peanuts, he has probably never seen a full bush in his life.

But it all hinges on how they sold it in the first place.

I had a look at the website earlier. Numerous posts refer to it as a memorial to her. I couldn't find reference to a statue 'of' her, but the fundraising effort was started ten years ago so I don't know if it's changed over time.

I agree it’s a strange choice to commemorate Mary Wollstonecraft. It looks rather like a Classical Venus statue rising out of the sea at her birth. I have no objections to nudity in statues see that often with Greek goddesses and such. But to me this is like the sculptor already had this statue in her garage unsold, and decided to write up some lame explanation to get it sold as Mary Wollstonecraft.

I’d much rather have seen her depicted like a Lady Liberty...you know fully dressed, flag held high, leading her troops.
The Fawcett statue is terrible. It looks like a woman hanging out the sheets to dry.