A Campbellford artist celebrated for his design of the toonie has drawn the ire of his community after he erected a 5-metre cross on his lawn and hung a noose from the top.
Brent Townsend knows the display is especially controversial in a town that gained notoriety last Halloween when a Ku Klux Klan getup won first place in a costume contest.
But the 48-year-old wildlife artist, who created the cross out of old barn beams, said it’s his last resort in a four-year battle with the municipality over the planned construction of a bridge. His home is slated for demolition.
“I’m not trying to stoke racial fires ... It’s a symbol of mistreatment,” Townsend told the Star on Saturday. “It’s not a hate crime. If anything it’s a hate crime against me. I’ve been a victim.”
Campbellford resident Troy Varty said it was “bad enough” when one man dressed in a white cloak and draped in the Confederate flag led another in blackface through a party at the Legion with a noose last Halloween. The duo won first place in the costume contest.
The combination of the noose and the cross is especially offensive so close to Easter, Varty said.
“A noose represents hatred — a symbol of death through intimidation, fear, control and degradation of the heart and the soul,” Varty said. “Everyone who I have talked about it to is very upset and all say the same thing — that, yes, it should be taken down. There are many churches in the area.”
Fark headline
| Idiot erects 15 foot cross on his front lawn with a noose hanging from it and is shocked when some people have a problem with that. "It's not a hate crime. If anything it's a hate crime against me. I've been a victim" |
Let's get the sheriff!
I can't believe all these Christians going around displaying a method of executing Jews, especially a very famous Jew. It's celebrating hate crimes is what it is, but it's perfectly acceptable for some reason.
In the guy's defense (his only defense), his house is being bulldozed.
"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
Now he knows how Nelson Mandela felt
Or maybe you're just dumb and filled with hate.
Or maybe you think your little problem is so much more important than everyone else's little problems and that damn bridge you don't like is every bit as terrible as murder!
Attention Whore.
Or maybe art is about expression through metaphor and imagery; maybe art doesn't have to limit itself to within the confines of your sensibilities. And maybe yes, the destruction of his home is, to him, as terrible as murder.
/He's an Attention Whore because he's trying to call attention to an issue he cares about? You're right, how dare he!
Or maybe you think your little problem is so much more important than everyone else's little problems and that damn bridge you don't like is every bit as terrible as murder!
Attention Whore.
Or maybe art is about expression through metaphor and imagery; maybe art doesn't have to limit itself to within the confines of your sensibilities. And maybe yes, the destruction of his home is, to him, as terrible as murder.
/He's an Attention Whore because he's trying to call attention to an issue he cares about? You're right, how dare he!
Yes, this is true.
It's also true that art is open to naked criticism for the exact same reasons.
In this case, I don't really get his metaphor. Is he suggesting the bulldozing of his house is a crucifixion where they also hang the victim?.
Me, personally, I would have made a bulldozer out of thousands of smaller toy bulldozers to metaphorically represent the way local government piles together a bunch of tiny rulings and ordinances to create a larger problem. The bulldozer would be attacking a house, the house itself would be constructed to appear to be built out of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Charter itself would be constructed from copies of land and property deeds, as a metaphor for how our freedoms shelter and protect us but can be easily eroded if ignored, and how those freedoms themselves are, like the bulldozer, built of the thousand tiny fragments that make up day to day life. In front of the house I'd place a specially prepared taxidermy piece, and anthropomorphized deer, that is, bipedal, wearing a common man's old flannel bathrobe to represent the common man losing his natural habitat and being left unable to defend himself as a deer in the headlights.
I would give a small talk about how it's a deconstruction of modernism and modernity as a three-dimensional sculpture done in the mode of Picasso's Guernica.
I would title the piece "The Gorgon of Witchcraft: The Nation Weeps for an Artist: A Spike Lee Joint".
But what do I know from art? I never designed a coin.
It's also true that art is open to naked criticism for the exact same reasons.
In this case, I don't really get his metaphor. Is he suggesting the bulldozing of his house is a crucifixion where they also hang the victim?.
Me, personally, I would have made a bulldozer out of thousands of smaller toy bulldozers to metaphorically represent the way local government piles together a bunch of tiny rulings and ordinances to create a larger problem. The bulldozer would be attacking a house, the house itself would be constructed to appear to be built out of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Charter itself would be constructed from copies of land and property deeds, as a metaphor for how our freedoms shelter and protect us but can be easily eroded if ignored, and how those freedoms themselves are, like the bulldozer, built of the thousand tiny fragments that make up day to day life. In front of the house I'd place a specially prepared taxidermy piece, and anthropomorphized deer, that is, bipedal, wearing a common man's old flannel bathrobe to represent the common man losing his natural habitat and being left unable to defend himself as a deer in the headlights.
I would give a small talk about how it's a deconstruction of modernism and modernity as a three-dimensional sculpture done in the mode of Picasso's Guernica.
I would title the piece "The Gorgon of Witchcraft: The Nation Weeps for an Artist: A Spike Lee Joint".
But what do I know from art? I never designed a coin.
But does a upside down Canadian flag look any different than a right side up Canadian flag?
When it's upside-down, it's two men looking up at a vagina.
Hahaha, I've never seen that before.
When it's upside-down, it's two men looking up at a vagina.
Hahaha, I've never seen that before.
Reminds me of the bit by Louis CK where he talks about seeing a bumper sticker on a car that said "Tell your girlfriend, I said 'Thanks'". You mean, you slept with my girlfriend, then got that bumper-sticker, put it on your car, found me in traffic, and got in front of me?!!? You bastard!
If Jesus was hanged instead of crucified, Christians would wear nooses around their necks.
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