Con”Artists”

One of the things that gets me throughly enraged is the waste of public money on so called “art” installations.KG posted a link to this article which is a texbook case of why city officials and council members should never be trusted with the control of public resourses.

NZ Herald-

“An anonymous arts donor wrote a cheque for $500,000 to complete the Lighthouse sculpture on Auckland’s Queens Wharf when construction costs went through the roof.

The Herald can reveal that the final cost of the controversial piece of public art – given a new bilingual name, The Lighthouse: Tu Whenua-a-Kura, by Maori artist Michael Parekowhai – is $2.5 million.

This is $500,000 more than the $2m price tag Auckland Council chief operating officer Dean Kimpton gave in June last year on the proviso some “outstanding construction-related costs” were still being negotiated with the contractor.”

First let me throw down a marker, what I am about to say is my personal opinion on public art installations paid for with public money i.e. tax dollars-They shouldn’t exist,period,full stop.Not one penny of public money should be spent on thier construction,installaton,maintinance or other accommodation and frankly any council or govenment official who does so should be hanged.

If an individual or group of individuals want to cover the full cost of the project with thier own money,then so be it.I could care less so long as the project isn’t a threat to public safety and isn’t an eyesore.However $500,000 for a fucking “lighthouse” that isn’t a light house is obscene and $265,000 for a god damn mirror hanging over a fucking street is criminal.I would say atleast the mirror is high enough off the street to hang the bastards from,but the construction is probably shit and would support enough weight to get the job done.

It’s not thier money to do with as they please,this is public money taken from people that supposedly is to be spent on public works priorities.Things like infrastructure,public safety,education and the like,things that everyone needs and benefits from.It’s not supposed to be pissed away stuffing the pockets of thier mentally unstable cronies in the “art” world.So next time you are driving and lose a hubcap or tire to a pothole in the street be thankful that your elected betters wisely pissed way your tax money on shitty “art”.

These council members should be ashamed for taking money away from people that are working themselves into an early grave to pay ever increasing tax rates.They are paying more for everything from a carton of milk to utility rates already because these bureaucratic turd flies get off on constantly increasing the level of regulation and outright bullshit the common working man has to negotiate just a put food on the table.I know they won’t be ashamed however,because the attitude taken is that they are our betters and therefore know so much better how to run things than we sub-human drooling peasants,I mean,umm…constituents.

Some have claimed we are now living in a revived Feudal state.I disagree,in Feudalism the King owned all the land,he leased it to his Barrons who raised money and trained Knights to defend the kingdom from thier neighbors.The peasants were poor,but they were protected to some degree.

The system we have now,the Kings have been replaced by vacillating semi-retarded school children.The Barrons by limp-wristed syphilitic chamber maids and the Knights  by court jesters who’s only concern is emptying the castle chamber pot containing the peasant’s civil rights.

While I am sure this rant will only serve to commiserate with my fellow peasants,I do still hold out hope that one day we will see our elected betters swinging by thier necks from our newly constructed “public art installation”.Art afterall is supposed to partly convey the artist’s emotion to the observer,a well built gallows screams seething rage quite well in my opinion.

PJW classic on the subject of Modern “Art”