How I Discovered Hate in Plain Sight on a Popular Sculpture

Is there an anti-Semitic work of art at the shores of Lake Michigan, as claimed by Matt Sweetwood in https://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/how-i-discovered-hate-in-plain-sight-on-a-popular-sculpture-wat/? If so, does it have to be removed or even scrapped? Does Jaume Plensa have to be condemned for being anti-Semitic? Let us get the facts straight. In “Spillover II” Jaume Plensa hid, according to Matt Sweetwood, a number of words: FRY, BAD, JEW, CHEAP and DEAD. The statue is in fact a sheet made up of capital letters draped in the form of the outline of a human body, from the waist rising from the ground. There are thousands… Read more »

This is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot believe they are taking it down. People are always LOOKING for something to be offended about. Are you aware of how many other words are on that sculpture? I saw “FAT” and I guess should have been offended. The artist is clearly making a statement about Midwest Obesity. Give me a break.

Update- they’re going to change a couple letters and put the statue right back where it belongs. From the statement issued by the Village of Shorewood: “Jaume Plensa has dedicated his career to creating works that bring people from all cultures together through artwork that asserts that our similarities are more important and powerful than our differences. Plensa uses alphabets as conceptual metaphors for cultures; the letters from each alphabet are utilized to create a skin of an anonymous figure with each letter’s placement entirely at random. Plensa is deeply saddened that his sculpture has been so egregiously misinterpreted. Plensa’s… Read more »

SHAME ON YOU! Good Men Project! I’ve always enjoyed reading your site and the credible, informative, enlightening articles you publish. However, THIS article? Further boosting an already over inflated egotistical, judgmental, ignorant man? WORTH MENTIONING!!!! A link to Jaume Plensa’s piece for the Ohio Statehouse holocaust memorial. I’m offended with how easily you throw the word Anti-Semite around- do your research. I’m a Jew, my father escaped from Denmark in World War II, my uncle wrote a book about the escape of the Danish Jews and have lost family in World War II. I get it, if this was legit… Read more »

It doesn’t say “Cheap Jew,” it says “Chea Jew” or “Chea JDBQ.” You misleadingly combine letters to make new letters in order to fit your narrative. You say above that it says “Dead Jew.” Where? You claim it says “Bad Jew” but you conveniently leave out a Z and an N. It reads “ZAD NEW” more than “Bad Jew.” This article is irresponsible at best.

Here’s my take on it, and a bunch of other stuff you can find in the sculpture: STEAM, SLED, CHOPS, and Milwaukee-based avant-garde jazz label UTECH Records: http://milwaukeerecord.com/arts/lets-see-if-there-are-really-anti-semitic-messages-hidden-in-a-shorewood-sculpture/

Alphabet soup effect. “JEW” is there on the diagonal — which, three-letter words aren’t hard to generate randomly — but to get anything offensive around it you’ve got to do some deliberate rearranging. Look at the author’s own highlighting on the linked blog. To get “BAD JEW” you have to ignore a “Z” right in the middle of it (BZAD JEW), and the “J” itself breaks up “CHEAP JEW.” What the sculpture actually says is “CHEAJPEW” — and that only if you start reading suddenly at a slant most of the way through. Otherwise its more like “ZEAJPB.” But I… Read more »

With knowledge of the “JEW HATERS” &being logical in emotional situations, this piece of KRAP is not art but well “thunk” out HATE. What have been results from the Art world & the City ?

If you throw together tandom collections of letters, you can find all kinds of words in them.

How many other words can you make from this sculpture? Looking at a couple closeup photos of the sculpture I found through Google, all sorts of words jump out.

Matt, how did the artist respond to your perception of the sculpture?

This article and the majority of the subsequent comments are absolutely absurd. I know this artist and there is simply not a bad bone in his body. He speaks many languages and English is third or fourth on the list. “Fry Bad Jew” is not even a coherent thought, let alone a hidden message meant to offend. Indeed, let’s hope cooler heads prevail here.

I, too, have a different view of the piece, as all do with art. A man, although riddled with hate speech, holes throughout, still remains strong and in prayer viewing the beauty of the earth.

Matt,

I’m hoping you will consider this- Look at the themes of Plensa’s works. Look at the artistic tradition he hails from (republicanism not fascism). This man created the crown fountain in Chicago- a celebration of Chicago’s diversity. I surely hope you will reach out to the artist before branding him an Anti Semite. Plensa has cited Jewish scripture “Song of Songs” as one of his primary influences. Would a man like this truly be likely to purposefully write boorish, petty, and hateful phrases in one of his sculptures? Let alone in his third language?

Hoping cooler heads prevail here…

Art is very often meant to offend, and in giving offense, give us the option of looking at things from a new perspective. Take Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, for example. At its first performance, it was met by catcalls, thrown objects, and the departure of most of the audience. They were disgusted by it. A leading French critic labeled it “a laborious and puerile barbarity.” There are any number of more recent examples, from urinating Christs to Barbie on a cross, that are equally offensive. Should we, or anybody, censor the artist because we disagree with his statements? Can… Read more »

Just a couple quick things: Were there any other discernible words or phrases in the piece? Other derogatory things, or perhaps positive things? I wonder if these seemingly derogatory statements about Jews are meant to be taken ironically. I say this only because of the dual implications of the title “Spillover II.” Spillover has often been used to describe the way Nazi-brand anti-Semitism “spilled over” into other European nations during and even after WWII, particularly into southern European countries (like Spain, where the artist is from), leading to a further entrenchment of anti-Semitism that seems extremely perverse and paradoxical given… Read more »

It didn’t take me long to see CHEAP JEW and FRY BAD JEW. None on the words are linear
This is deliberate.There is no doubt. Ask a professor of statistics what the chances of just these words connecting. I am sure the odds are 1 million to 1. Great find Matt! I can’t wait to see the artist explain this away.

When I was a kid we used to circle all the “bad” words we could find in word searches. I doubt the maker meant them to be there but it sure entertained a bunch of elementary school boys. Considering Plensa’s cited influences of “Song of Songs”, renowned sculpture titled “Tolerance” and recent submissions to the Ohio Holocaust Memorial I think a modicum of skepticism is warranted here. I certainly hope the author and this publication did their homework. It’s poor form to accuse someone of hate without making a careful examination of the facts. But, I did hear that if… Read more »