Greta’s Brass Cheek
Just when you thought the world couldn’t get any sillier
A bronze statue of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has been unveiled at a university in the UK, with critics branding it a “vanity project.”
The University of Winchester proudly revealed the ‘inspirational’ statue’, claiming it was the first life-size sculpture of the Swedish campaigner.
However, critics blasted the statue as indicative of a cult of personality, while others questioned how much carbon emissions were emitted in the making of the structure.
The university’s student union also voiced opposition to the statue, which cost £24,000, saying the money could have been spent on better things.
Climate Scepticism 
Poor child, her fingering arm must be dislocated at the shoulder. Either that or it’s undamaged but about 15% too long.
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Whose idea was it to commission this hideous thing? It certainly is not art.
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Bronze is an alloy containing copper, which can oxidize when combined with moisture and carbon dioxide, creating a green patina. How appropriate for someone who can see carbon dioxide and has a thick green patina already.
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PAMELADRAGON
According to ITV news it was commissioned in 2019 by outgoing vice chancellor Joy Carter.
So she can’t be all bad.
I don’t know much about her academic work, but she has an article in “Biogeochemistry of intertidal sediments.”
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I feel what is probably an automatic disapproval of the Greta statue. Not on grounds of poor quality or because it is a waste of dosh, but because the subject ought to be dead. Not that I am wishing ill of Greta, but it seems to me to be standard practice to memorialise someone after they are no longer with us. I’m trying to think of statues of living people in the UK – the only one that springs to mind is the one of Alison Lapper. Searching for her now reveals that her son overdosed after years of being bullied about his mother’s disability. It’s a wonderful world.
There are exceptions then, and not just for dictators. Nevertheless, I’m not sure about bronze Greta. I wonder if anyone asked her permission? I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that a) they didn’t, and b) she would have been horrified by the idea had she been asked.
Personally I like Fearless Girl, which I now read was moved because of the whining of the author of Charging Bull. Such a strange thing to get worked up about. Can’t help but think that if I was the artist behind Bull I would have been delighted to have such an unbalanced but equal opposing figure as Fearless Girl. The pair worked as a pair.
And if 24 grand is a lot to spend on a bronze, what about the Gormley sculpture at Plymouth’s West Hoe that has cost the council that commissioned it more than 700 grand. That has to be 28 Gretas unless my maths is out. Actually it might just squeak 29 Gretas. And all that for something that looks like a one-legged version of the Scythian out of the computer game Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery. Dunno if this will appear…
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Dang, the Scythian didn’t appear. Hoo well.
[Make sure the URL ends in .png, .jpg, .jpeg or .gif. WordPress will do the resize for you.
Does that look okay? – ed]
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Unless Gormley has given consent to the way his sculpture is displayed, it might cost Plymouth even more, based on what happened in Aldeburgh.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-56568697
Mind you, not much of his work is more inspirational than his Brighton erections
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Jit, a local MP has the perfect replacement for the eye-wobblingly weird Gormley statue in Plymouth:
Or perhaps the Gormley statue could be moved to a spot beneath this one to make it look like she’s having a tinkle:
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/local-news/statue-squatting-prostitute-called-bianca-740054
It would also block a local man’s threat to erect a bronze penis underneath that statue.
(While I’m so far off-topic, may I apologise for spreading two off-topic falsehoods in another thread? Mr Peregrine Pratt was the grandson, not son, of a Sussex ostrich-feather magnate; and Captain Nugent ‘Mr Fruity’, later ‘Monkey’, Sherlock killed at least four children, not at least two, when landing on Lake Athabasca with a cargo of missionaries. I should prolly add that this wasn’t really Sherlock’s fault. When coming in to land he saw children playing on the ice in front of him and, somewhat courageously, veered his plane into a pile of petrol drums to avoid hitting the children. Alas, more children were playing behind the drums. Sad or what?)
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Here’s a 3d rendering of Greta that better captures her essence:
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What interested me was what causes an institute of higher learning to blow £25,000 on a big brass pokemon. Apparently it was the vanity project of Joy Carter, an expert on intertidal sediments whose only connection with climate seems to be the fact that she’s a Co-Chair of the Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education.
Searching for the Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education leads you to the website of the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education which for some reason goes under the acronym EAUC
https://www.eauc.org.uk/the_climate_commission_for_uk_higher_and_furthe
The CCFUKHAFE (so that’s why they don’t have their own website) has a one hour forty minute documentary on Youtube (92 views since it went up 5 months ago; still no likes, dislikes or comments:)
It has a keynote speech by Lord Selwyn “Potty talk” Deben which I can’t wait to view.
According to this article
Joy Carter has been deeply influenced by the “Deep Adaptation” movement of climate loony Jem Bendell:
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Geoff,
Jem Bendell’s ours (by which I mean Cumbria’s), so hands off!
He is the founder of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability at the University of Cumbria.
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