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RoboCop Miner Statue: Open To Criticism

February 6, 2010

It seemed like a good idea at the time. A hospital in Raton, New Mexico, that specializes in treating injured New Mexico miners would feature a statue of a miner, nearly 10 feet tall, sculpted by a New Mexico artist. Even better, because of the sculptor’s “openness” style, the statue would cost $20,000 less than a traditional bronze statue of the same size.

The statue was placed on its pedestal outside of the entrance of the hospital in December 2009. And, according to the local newspaper, some of the miners do not like it at all.

“It looks like Robo Cop all shot up,” the Trinidad Times Independent quotes one miner, who also serves on the hospital’s board. “It’s not my style to make something solid,” the same newspaper quotes the artist. Sketches of the statue were reportedly seen and approved by the town back in 2007, so it’s not clear why it’s causing such a fuss now.

We’ve seen the Anatomical Swiss Cheese style in other pieces of public art, and we often find it more interesting than the predictable solids of Baked Potato Realism. For years we’ve made detours to peer through transparent people.

But then again, we admit we haven’t toiled in mines, been hurt, and found ourselves wheeled past an oversized cyborg with large chunks of its body missing.

Sections: Attraction News, Statues 1 Comment »

One Response to “RoboCop Miner Statue: Open To Criticism”

1. John Says:
   March 15th, 2010 at 3:05 pm

   Someone possibly famous once said something along the lines of “art is and always will be in the eye of the beholder”. In the era of radical government spending gone wild, many communities require that all public works projects spend a portion of the project costs on “art”. Maybe the voting public will wake up (soon, I hope) and boot the JA’s out who want to needlessly spend our grandkids wealth on “art”.

Trunkation Nation