Ashtead's Journal: Modern Sculpture...

Now what's up with this?. The article title is translated as "Soon she will be lying floating outside the Opera house" and it refers to some sculpture or work of art that has the title "She lies".

Now, this looks more like a dead ship than anything else, so presumably the "she" is a ship and not a woman -- I am reminded of the West Pier in Brighton, which has been derelict for years, and it collapsed partially a few years ago. Now Oslo gets to have what looks like its own collapsed pier, right from the start.

First the Peace Price goes to Al Gore and now this? I don't know what to say, but I think the government needs to change come the election in 2009.

what art

[Bill Dog]

If I had to look at that eyesore sitting out in the water, I'd say attach an oil rig to it and at least get some benefit out of it. We've banned off-shore drilling here because the ugly structures pollute the view. But at least they're purposeful. This is like erecting a partially collapsed slum building to look at and dampen everyones' spirits.

BTW, what do you think's wrong with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize?

Re:

[Ashtead]

There isn't much oil underneath the water in that area, so there won't be much use of an oil rig. Except it would have been better-looking.

As for the award to Al Gore, I have a hard time figuring what exactly he has specifically done to further peace. If they had re-named it to the environmental prize at least it would have been something to be discussed pro or contra, and at least some kind of argument for giving him the prize could have been made. Even with his movie-making, at least he could have been

Re:

[Bill Dog]

Thanks for your interesting thoughts, and perspective. I guess I had just accepted, without thinking much about it, really, that the Peace Prize had just kind of morphed into a generic humanitarian prize, for those it was decided had made a tremendous contribution to the world and the betterment of mankind and all that. Ending wars by settling peoples' differences is awfully hard, and doesn't occur very often, which would leave the committee with long gaps between having anyone to give an award to. Maybe th

Re:

[Ashtead]

Yes, if subject to strict rules, the Peace Price would have had to be awarded only occasionally.

According to Alfred Nobel's will [nobelprize.org] the criteria for the Peace Prize is:

"to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

As I said, I'm not sure where Al Gore would fit into any of this.

But there were some candidates this year that were more of the traditional