We have all seen them lurking about in the lawns and gardens around us. They seem cute, maybe weird, but definitely not controversial. Germany, in fact, has over 25 million of them littered across the country. (I feel sorry for whoever had to come up with that number) The garden gnome was created to be a friendly little creature hiding in the shrubbery, greeting whoever may pass by.
Then Ottmar Hörl came along. Now with his installation in Straubing titled Dance with the Devil, he is covered a square in Bavaria town with 1,250 little gnomes, all giving us the Nazi Salute. The show, meant as a satirical comment on the rise of fascism, have caused controversy in German, a country that is still (understandably) sensitive to such issues. Hörl claims he was trying to show that there is a little far-right in all of us, and the gnomes provided an unpatronizing platform for this statement.
I have to say, I didn't see this one coming, but I'm liking the original idea behind it. That being said, I'm still not a fan of gnomes in general.
1 comments:
I'd love to have one of these suckers buried in my bushes- just think- a Jehovah's witness, or worse yet, a boyscout selling popcorn balls shows up on my porch...they might think twice about ringing the bell if nazi gnome is staring them down....*this statement in no way means I support any Hitler initiatives* :-)
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