Shorewood awaits recommendation on sculpture

Shorewood owns the sculpture but is not paying for its transport or any refurbishing that may take place. “They’ve actually agreed to insure and guarantee it in our name,” said Johnson, referring to Richard Gray Gallery of Chicago.

 

The village will await the gallery’s recommendation, “whether that means moving a few letters or whatever,” Johnson said, and will then make a decision keeping in mind the Jewish community, the original anonymous donor, the people of Shorewood and the artist, Johnson said.

 

After a blog post last week from a visitor to Milwaukee indicated the sculpture’s random letters could be read to spell epithets against Jews, the issue spread through social media. The village of Shorewood then issued a statement late Friday, Nov.13, 2015, indicating it would remove and restore the work, ”as soon as logistically possible, so that such interpretation of the letters will not diminish the grandeur of the work or the generosity of the gift.”

 

When Johnson first heard about the dustup late last week, he went to go see the letters for himself. To him, the letters seem random, but he very much wants to be sensitive to the Jewish community and is grateful for support from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council.

 

“I was so happy to see what the Jewish Community Relations Council statement was that you had in your article,” he told a Chronicle reporter on Sunday. “We are trying to be sensitive to the whole matter. We want to act in the proper manner.”

 

The Council issued the statement Friday afternoon after entering into talks with Shorewood officials regarding the sculpture. "The artist and the Village of Shorewood responded swiftly and with great sensitivity. The sculpture will be temporarily removed from the park for restoration immediately," reads the statement from the Council. "We’re grateful for their sensitive handling of this situation."

 

"They demonstrated great understanding of how deeply offensive it would be to find anti-Jewish – or any hateful — words in a piece of public art," reads the Council statement. "We indeed live in a time in which there is reason for increased sensitivity and awareness. We look forward to celebrating with Shorewood when the sculpture returns to Atwater Park.”

 

The random letters in the “Spillover II” sculpture can be read to say, “Cheap Jew,” though the word “Jew” is above and to the side from “Cheap” and to make the “P” one must combine a “D” with another letter. Other phrases have also been identified as offensive. 

 

“Jaume Plensa has dedicated his career to creating works that bring people from all cultures together through artwork that asserts that our similarities are more important and powerful than our differences,” reads the Village of Shorewood statement. “We support the artist Jaume Plensa and the gallery who will be removing and restoring the work, as soon as logistically possible, so that such interpretation of the letters will not diminish the grandeur of the work or the generosity of the gift.”

 

Plensa was named a semi-finalist in 2013 to create the Ohio Statehouse Holocaust Memorial in Columbus. He has also designed sculptures for Millennium Park in Chicago.