I found this story to be tremendously amusing and thought I’d pass it along. It appears a young North Carolina artist saw traffic barrels and became inspired, enough so that he nabbed three and transformed them into a monster looking to hitchhike.
It’s not something you see every day on the roadside, and I found it to be pretty creative. It brings to mind those cheesy roadside attractions and play areas where kids can frolic as interstate highway traffic whips past, or those crazy constructions at mini golf courses of a certain vintage. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the big city and saw art everywhere in the cityscape, but I’m an appreciator of street art in its many forms. And this transgression seems relatively harmless. The company owning the barrels has received a bunch of publicity, so they are happy. I suppose if compensation is needed on some level then requiring the artist to pay for the barrels would certainly suffice, but it strikes me as draconian for the police to push charges. What do you think?
Story: Barrel Art Nets Arrest, Notoriety for NC Student.
- Aaron Brand
June 18th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
We don’t have a justice system, we have a legal system. Punishing people without recompense to the victim is standard practice.
In this case, the victim doesn’t want the perpetrator prosecuted, because they find the sculpture he created to be more valuable than the barrels he destroyed. While it doesn’t excuse his doing so without permission, it’s their choice to make.