An Australian teenager has faced court for allegedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by sticking googly eyes on it.
Amelia Vanderhorst, 19, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on Tuesday charged with one count of property damage.
In a statement at the time of the September incident, the local council said CCTV footage showed a person putting artificial eyes on the artwork which locals have nicknamed the “Blue Blob”.
It shouldn’t be a crime if it’s objectively hilarious.
Why is she punished for vastly improving it?
Looking at the “damage” - it seems whoever removed them used a hard scraper and some sort of aggressive solvent. This is not damage from the googly eyes, but from the hands of the remover, who probably had too much caffeine and enthusiasm that day.
unless the person who put on the googly eyes glued them so that it would hold better
I charge Amelia Vanderhorst with being a legend.
the best kind of art is art you interact with. if this art is for the public, then allow the public to have it.
Someone needs to yarn-bomb this thing. Perhaps something like a headband that falls to googly-eye level maybe. Perhaps, you know, with eyes on it.
Either way, I’d be tempted to put up a sign next to it that says “Help! I’ve gone blind!”
I’m torn.
I love the googly eyes. Everything is better with googly eyes but I do know the pain of going through the council process to get stuff like this installed to make the area more interesting and engaging local artists.
I suppose getting the teen’s family to cough up the repair money is fair. I hope they got lots of photos of it with the eyes before it was taken down.
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Like it better with the eyes.
Looks like the unholy outcome of breeding a Smurf with a Womble…
Which is to say that it looks much better with the eyes in place.
If they used more than about 2 coats of paint it prob wouldn’t have been an issue.
19 so they’re an adult.
Fuck the teen line off.
I don’t care beyond the stupid headline.
Sure 19 is ending in teen but in Australia 18 you become an adult
19 is a teenager, mate. Thats why we have “teen porn” and no one bats an eye. Because teenagers can, and often are, adults as well. Teenager doesnt mean child by default.
Grumpy old prudes could have just laughed and left it.
And yet Trump continues to get away with crimes against humanity
Perhaps they shouldn’t have used a paint chipper to remove the eyes.
Punishmwnt is a high-5
We treat art, especially old art, with far too much reverence.
It’s largely just collection trophies for rich people or rich countries.
Most of the historical data, if any, could be collected through scans and downloaded, but we insist on treating these with a weird reverence that makes no sense, often takes up space, and takes money to upkeep.
I honestly don’t support this use of taxpayer funds.
Philistine
