UPDATE: Project Installed August 17, 2007
Webcams
No place can bat a thousand, but Newbiggin by the Sea in northeast England is really dipping low with the proposed “Couple” by artist Sean Henry. It’s too bad after successes in the region with Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North in Gateshead, Juan Munoz’ Conversation Piece in South Shields and Poetry by WN Herbert in Darlington West Park of Tees Valley.
Sean Henry seems to be competing with American J. Seward Johnson for artistic achievement in literal banality without the conceptual redemption of Jeff Koons or the intimate ugliness of Duane Hansen. Henry and Johnson sculpt human beings in a recognizable moment such as daydreaming on your back or stopped in thought. They are the “Lifetime” and “Hallmark” channels of public art, providing a non-poetic reminder of us. We just watch ourselves without a thought in our head. Time passes with a little smile and that apparently is better to some people than no smile at all.
My last statement is too harsh. Beyond the little smile, what people appreciate is that someone with power – museum, government, corporation – left the artworld and purchased something for THEM. Who doesn’t like to be appreciated?
“Couple” is what it says: a middle class, middle age man and woman. The fifteen-foot tall bronze sculptures will face the sea and sunrise on a breakwater in the North Sea. At high tide, the couple will appear to be standing on water.
The people of Newbiggin and potential tourists will be reminded that they like to watch the sunrise on sea. That’s it. Nothing more.
The sculpture does not capture the light or the sea. The sculpture does not enhance my knowledge of the place. The sculpture tells me nothing about the uniqueness of the people of Newbiggin.
The sculpture is human debris claiming more of the earth at a time when we need to claim less.
As a note on Seward Johnson. According to the Season of Sculpture in Sarasota website, a 25 foot tall bronze sculpture of the famous kissing couple at the end of WWII costs $1,140,000. Why is banality always so expensive?
Public Art, Public Space
Perhaps I’m missing something, but “The Couple” seems like a wry comment on Florida beach culture. A southern version of Edward Hopper’s New York denizens staring out of their apartment windows in to the light. It might actually be interesting. But the devil is in the details, as they say.
we were there the night the statue was put up. my grandparents have lived in newbiggain for 40 years+. and i am saddend that such a monstersity was put up in such a beautiful place. a quote from my grandfather of 88 years, (he was born and bred in Newbiggain, and was working down the ‘MINES'(which he almost lost his life in) in this ‘FISHING VILLAGE’) HIS QUOTE “If they had to put up any statue, could it not have been something relevent to the area, such as a couble (fishing boat), or something concerned with the mines, as it is a fishing and mining village”. i am a 15 year old, and have been going tho Newbiggain sins i was little, and i personally feel that it ruins the beauty, of this picturesce bay. and has brought alot of distress to the residence of this lovely village, my grandparents incuded.
Very few people in the village knew anything about the bay works until AFTER they started. When I complained that there was no information available, I was told that ‘just because you live overlooking the bay, you do not own it’. The planning applications were passed by the council with NO local consultations. At the belated public meeting to advise on work already progressing most people were angry that the bloke is wearing a flat cap, and that they were totally unrepresentative of the area. We have over a thousand years of history in the village – we were once the third largest grain port in the country, we have a direct link to Scottish King John de Baliol, we have the oldest working RNLI station in the world, the first telegraph cable across the North Sea came out next to Bertorelli’s. but all that counts for nothing.
A bloke wearing a flat cap, with his missus, showing their backs to the village.
Almost all the fishing community agree that the breakwater is in the wrong place – it will cause a vortex at each end which will strip the sand away and will be dangerous to sailing, swimming, etc. but of course, they weren’t asked. The contractors dismissed all questions about the siting by claiming that they had done all the calculations on the most up to date computer simulations and they KNEW it was right – but within days of the sand arriving a deep gully appeared at the south end of the bay and they did not know what to do about it. Oh Dear.
The bay has been ruined.