Honoring those who lost their lives to HIV and AIDS is usually an encouraged gesture… except when the memorial resembles the most intimate part of a person’s backside.
The controversial 9-foot structure is supposed to be erected in a Palm Springs park. The donut-like statue is filled with concentric carved circles and has a hole in the middle. “Its design is intended to evoke feelings of connection, reflection, and hope,” says News Station 3.
But for many, the design elicits feelings of disgust and downright rage.
“It’s really strained,” said one Palm Springs resident. “I mean, it’s almost like a piece of art looking for a purpose, instead of the other way around. It could be about anything, and as a consequence, it’s kind of about nothing.”
Put simply, devoid of meaning, the structure just kind of looks like an anus.
As a gay artist that is really really bad. FFS. Whoever selects the art in downtown Palm Springs should’ve been fired 49 years ago. The car standing up, the babies crawling on the ground, the graffiti area has jumped the shark. It all has to change. The Marilyn Monroe can stay.
— Fun Buns (@FunBuns876) September 16, 2023
Wow
— Joe Andrade (@Andr86864480Joe) September 16, 2023
Whoever designed that is clearly trolling. It looks like an anus.
— Hugh Jahsso (@HughJahsso) September 16, 2023
The news segment on the $500,000 artistic misfire is unintentionally hilarious. It begins with a serious anchor trying to introduce the segment without describing the memorial’s unfortunate layout.
“There are concerns tonight being raised about an AIDS memorial planned for downtown Palm Springs. Some people don’t like it. Here’s Jake Ingrassia for more on the controversy,” he says.
Ingrassia, for his part, gets a little cheeky.
“It is a 9-foot sculpture planned for a Palm Springs park meant to remember lives lost to HIV and AIDS. But the design doesn’t resonate with everyone,” he says. “In fact, some call it ‘inappropriate,’ and also the view that it too closely resembles… other things.”
One of the subjects interviewed, Gene Brake, puts his interpretation more bluntly.
“The backside of the proposed memorial looks like a graphic depiction of the backside of a human being,” he says.
It’s hard to argue with that!
The Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Task Force, which commissioned the design, told residents it will work on a revised model.
On the positive side, the idea behind the sculpture is truly well-intended.
“The sculpture will have maximum impact in the Downtown Park by adding great beauty and providing the opportunity for reflection and remembrance. An HIV educational component, including prevention, diagnosis and treatment options is also being planned.” the group’s website reads.
Palm Springs, which proudly calls itself the “gayest city in America,” is a great location for an HIV/AIDS memorial. Long an LGBTQ+ haven, the desert oasis gained notoriety in the mid-20th century as a luxurious spot that offered closeted actors privacy.
Today, Palm Springs is the epicenter of gay life in Southern California. It was the first city to elect an all-LGBTQ+ council, and still hosts troves of gay celebrities.
The liberal city also has the highest prevalence of HIV+ men over 50.
LGBTQ+ history is taken seriously in Palm Spring; and as a result, residents want a memorial that befits the topic.
Or at least, can’t be mistaken for a gaping rectum.
“One anus to rule them all”
— Gregory Peckerwood (@GregoryPeckWood) September 19, 2023
I’ll never look at a Bundt cake pan the same way again
— g0rdy (@g0rdy4) September 19, 2023
“Welcome to The Remembrance Rectum.”
— J. The Independent (@TheSUMO_IRL) September 19, 2023
Someone (brave) needs to probe this further
— Tower_Mark (@MarkTower_gab) September 19, 2023
LeBlevsez
Wha….?
Seems kinda….
But it….
Who would….
WHY?
abfab
Vaginal architecture I’m familiar with. It’s amazing! Anal architecture, not so much but I’ll be sure to look into it.
Fahd
Groupthink, the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility, seems to always emerge as a potential problem in public art installations. Someone came up with something awful, and there just wasn´t the ¨individual responsibility¨ available to shut it down….no one spoke up and the something awful just rolled on.
Wouldn´t be the first time Palm Springs became a laughing stock….and people complain about Biden´s senior moments..
abfab
And what would you have us look at, Fahd? Another giant red ribbon?
Fahd
The article states, ¨The Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Task Force, which commissioned the design, told residents it will work on a revised model.¨ I will leave it up to the ¨task force¨ or committee to decide.
abfab
Yawn.
Fahd
Groupthink … leaving it up to the committee…get it? Nevermind, I´m tired of bickering with you.
abfab
Bickering is how things get moved thru commitee. You sound like a new age guru, Fahd. Yawnolla.
abfab
And we all know about phallic structures. PS should get over themselves. In time they will love it.
BY CAREY DUNNE Fast Company DOT COM
Zaha Hadid sent shockwaves over the Internet yesterday when she released her design for Qatar’s new World Cup Stadium. Headlines that sounded like a chorus of giggling Beavis and Butt-Heads all agreed: Qatar’s World Cup 2022 Stadium Looks Like A Vagina.
AECOM, a firm Hadid is partnering with on the project, reportedly said that the stadium was inspired by “the dhow boat that carried generations of local fishermen and pearl divers.” They insist its resemblance to genitalia was accidental, but what if it wasn’t? SO THE HELL WHAT? The world’s phallic versus vaginal building ratio could use some balancing out. Practically every city is a ragingly Freudian cluster of glass, concrete, and stone c-o-c-k. (Fun fact: There are so many phallic buildings that, in 2003, Cabinet Magazine launched a Most Phallic Building Contest. After writer Jonathan Ames claimed that Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Bank Building was the world’s most phallic, defensive readers attacked him, claiming that their city’s dick-like building was the most dick-like in the land. The score was settled by voting, and Michigan’s Ypsilanti Water Tower, AKA the Brick Dick, emerged as the proud winner.)
still_onthemark
Maybe the Ypsilanti Water Tower can f*ck the biggest a**hole in Palm Springs!
abfab
With or with out a Trojan?
still_onthemark
They don’t make Trojans that XXL. The anus will need to get a prescription for PrEP.
abfab
The anus will be in good hands. It’s Palm Springs.
Archie
Can’t wait for someone to glue a giant dildo (with balls) into the hole.
abfab
And for the observers to fess up to one big thing. AIDS was NOT something that only happened TO THOSE HAVING ANAL SEX!
This particular ROSEBUD might get some of the empty headed BORES to see the irony in this particular work……..even tho it has not been given the green light.
Look at this asshole you assholes! Wake up! Own it. Don’t put the blame on us anymore.
bachy
The relationship between circular/spherical art and spirituality has a long history. I’m not in love with the sculpture but I think it’s adequately abstract, which is key to modern, public memorial art.
I can’t help feeling that too many in the movement are thinking with their as*holes these days. Everything is not about you and your hole, sweetie.
abfab
Most New Yorkers thought the Guggenheim looked like an upside down toilet bowl. I remain.
jackmister
Such a lot of fuss over a giant Nordicware Bundt pan.
abfab
It’s a vortex.
Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!
Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
…………and so on and so forth…
decampbell
It looks exactly like a Bundt pan.
Kangol2
The Palm Springs Sphincter! It might not be the right design for an AIDS memorial but it sure would work for all the anal action and love that occurs in Palm Springs!
abfab
The French Cruller!
surfnspy
They could sell sperm shaped bean bags and turn it into a fundraiser.
abfab
For Halloween we can dress up as sperm cells and jump thru to the ”other side”.
Little pendands for piercings! Seat cushions for the long, horrible, boring drive back to LA.
RyanMBecker
Nothing about [very] out twinkie reporter Jake Ingrassia? Wow you guys are less horny than I thought. Respect.
nm4047
I think the deadline was fast approaching and the ‘sculpture’ someone saw their princess dress cake pan on it’s side and thought there’s my design. Now I think it’s time for cake.
abfab
Hey out there! Calling the town mothers and fathers of Palm Springs! Can you hear us?
Palm Springs Gays! Please chime in here! We need your opinions! And please don’t say you don’t care. I mean, we know how busy you all are with more important matters of political import and/or anal bleaching.
barryaksarben
looks like a lifesaver candy or an anus. both would be a little insulting implying the need for one and a way too big other
abfab
Are they reinventing the wheel? The life preserver?
Watch…..this will tour and end up as a permanent exhibit in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. And then maybe Palm Springs will finally get the Rodin that it deserves.
abfab
For an in-depth look into the significant and major works of civic art of this peculiar desert city which once was Mexico…………………….image search: PUBLIC ART PALM SPRINGS.
abfab
psaidsmemorial dot org