Matt Sweetwood wrote about Jaume Plensa’s Spillover II Sculpture in Milwaukee and the community then fought to have it removed. Here is how the power of the word can create action.
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It took 5 days from the time my article, “How I Discovered Hate in Plain Sight on a Popular Sculpture” posted until, Jaume Plensa, had his Spillover II sculpture removed for “repair”. I had observed that there was an ethnic slur, “Cheap Jew” in plain sight, made from letters of the sculpture. The Internet buzzed, my article went viral and it quickly forced a meeting between the artist and the local community. After I did four TV interviews and four newspaper interviews the story was all over Milwaukee and the country.
The sculpture in question is located in Atwater Park, Shorewood, just north of Milwaukee. Local officials, Jewish leaders, and press headed to the site to verify what I saw. After observing for themselves and speaking with Jaume Plensa and his representatives they came to agreement that the sculpture needed to come down and the offensive remarks needed to be taken out. The power of The Good Men Project and what we do here has made the world a better place.
So that’s the end of the story and all is well.
Not exactly.
What was disappointing to me was how so many people tried to make me the villain. I was an observer and reported what I saw. The sculpture was taken down because the people of Shorewood, local religious leaders and the press went to see it and saw for themselves that what I reported was correct.
My blog, MSweetwood.com (as well as the GMP Article) received tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments. The comments were divided somewhat evenly for and against the removal of the artwork. 99% of the comments came from people who had never visited the sculpture. Many of the negative comments were hateful and directed personal attacks at me.
Three of my favorite comments were:
“Oh my God, I pray for you, Mr. Sweetwood. The world is not out to get you and in fact, could probably care less if you’re a Jew, a Pole or whatever you may be. Be a person. A MATURE person, if you dare. What a baby. I’d be ashamed to be Jewish, if you represent the faith. Nice job”
You are just another person, proud to be a troll and start fights that never existed. Hopefully, at the least, the art will keep crazy extremists like you out of Milwaukee
“Die Jew. I like it, and it’s quite fitting for the surrounding area. I may go buy some more of this guy’s work.”
Most of the comments made no logical argument why my observation was wrong or provided visual proof otherwise. They engaged in attacks with the intention of marginalizing me and inflicting hurt. This seems to be the way we conduct discourse in our society today. If you disagree with someone, even if they have been potentially victimized, post something vile about them, anonymously, and run away. In fact, many people claimed they were offended that I was offended.
The artist, Jaume Plensa also took that strategy. To quote his gallery’s press release “Plensa is deeply saddened that his sculpture has been so egregiously misinterpreted.” This shows he has no real interest in healing any wounds he may have caused intentionally or unintentionally nor is he willing to take responsibility for what he has done. Then again, if he took responsibility, he might have trouble selling more $1,000,000+ sculptures. Plensa made himself the victim.
This is the response I hoped Plensa would have given: “I am deeply saddened that my work may have offended anyone. I assure you that it wasn’t intentional and I am not anti-Semitic in anyway. I will gladly remove any offensive phrases in Spillover II and in fact I will check all of my other sculptures around the world to make sure this hasn’t happened there too.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say the right thing. Maybe he hasn’t really “dedicated his career to creating work that brings people from all cultures together through artwork that asserts our similarities are more important and powerful than our differences”
Maybe we need to examine his other letter-work sculptures more carefully to see what messages can found in in them too?
Mr. Sweetwood, you have succeeded in finding trouble where there was none, creating drama, and have unneccessarily moved people to spend what I’m sure is no small amount of time and money to “fix” the so-called problem. I, myself, am familiar with the piece, though I never discovered what you so keenly observed–and probably wouldn’t have in this lifetime, or two lifetimes, for that matter. I am also generally familiar with art; both locally and around the globe. In college (20 + years ago), I was a sculpture major, and I am in involved member of the local art community.… Read more »
It never ceases to amaze me that people who are not from a particular marginalized group feel that they have the right to determine if someone from said group is correct in feeling offended (see: whitesplaining, mansplaining, etc.). This is a Those of you who are telling Matt that he shouldn’t have been offended or that he overreacted have never experienced anti-Semitism personally and you don’t get to determine what is or isn’t anti-Semitism.
There have been more than a few Jewish commenters who think Mr. Plensa is NOT an anti-semite. Dee, who commented prior to you, thinks Mr. Sweetwood’s conclusions are invalid is just one example.
The village of Shorewood’s statement quite obviously contradicts Mr. Sweetwood’s narrative as it states “Plensa is deeply saddened that his sculpture has been so egregiously misinterpreted. Plensa’s works and beliefs are the antithesis of anti-Semitism.”
Mr. Sweetwood needs to spend more time reading the Good Men Project 😉
“Permanent Certainty
– assumes one knows what happened – “this is the way it is” – no questions
– assumes one has an “objective” point of view
– assumes utter clarity of perceptions
– does not see the need to seek new knowledge
– has intentions of imposing a particular point of view
– isn’t interested in new learning other than to reinforce previous views
– is not willing to be changed by the conversation
– wants to impose it’s own story onto yours”
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/why-the-endless-fighting-its-caring-curiosity-vs-hostile-curiosity/
Well done. Believing this a coincidence is just plain dishonest. Any reasonable person would concede that the combinations of words here in order, are clearly purposefully done. Perhaps “Jew” could be spelled out by chance. But not “Cheap Jew” or “Fry Bad Jew,” and in order to boot. The chances are just zero.
I believe that people will see what they want to see. Ever contemplate the images in clouds? I live near this piece of art and will be incredibly disappointed if, in fact, the piece has been removed permanently, I don’t believe that is actually the situation. Art can inspire conversation, it can create opportunity to dialog. As an artist myself, I know that often no one can truly know what is embedded into my art, what was my intention. Art is interpreted through the lens of the observer. Mr. Plensa wants to live in a world where he is a… Read more »
Your “victory” was phyrric at best. The press, the art world, the village of shore wood and the majority of commenters all disagreed with you. 99% of the Twitter traffic was the result of hundreds upon hundreds of tweets from YOU; The vast majority of which were ignored.
Jaume Plensa is still one of the preeminent sculptors in the world today. You’re just a bully with a Twitter following.
Dubya’s dead right. Your tantrum served your own needs, and your own ends. Your selective, inaccurate and seriously skewed, view of this work of art has incensed the local people who have loved and appreciated it. The empty platform still has letters on it…..it says, for example “chomp wax”, and a number of other “obviously” intentional messages. If you’re still in town maybe you should just check in and see if the letters that are left are offensive to you too.
You don’t know me so why would ascribe to my intentions? You are personally attacking me instead of focusing on the issue at hand. Was I right? Apparently I was since Shorewood, the Press and local religious leaders agreed and that is why THEY decided to remove it.
The press didn’t support you. The articles were either reporting the brouhaha with a jaundiced eye or outright mocking you. The village of Shorewood’s statement overtly supported the artist’s position. The very way you handled this situation by declaring “hate” and publicizing your own articles before reaching out to the artist illustrates everything wrong about today”s outrage culture.
All you achieved was to demonstrate the “tyranny of the offended” which isn’t exactly a laurel most people would treasure.
You said “All you achieved was to demonstrate the “tyranny of the offended” which isn’t exactly a laurel most people would treasure.” How is this any different then a municipality displaying a Menorah which is offensive to some?
Well said!
Connect disparate letters in any article selectively, including in your own blog, and you can read anything you want into it. The ethical thing to have done would have been to contact the artist or the sponsors and share your concern instead of blogging your personal perception for the world to see and defaming an artist. What you’ve done amounts to a witch hunt. Shame on you.