A sculpture showing a women’s sprawled legs on a Glasgow park gate has sparked horror and disgust.
The artwork has appeared on the gate of Festival Park, Govan, this month – where a woman was allegedly raped in February.
It has been removed after anger erupted online last night. Its “feminist” creator Rakel McMahon pointed out the work raises the issue about victim blaming in sexual harassment.
The park featuring the piece is home to a children’s playground and sits beside a school.
The sculpture, which shows legs with red high heels has provoked outrage on Twitter.
Campaign group Make Space for Girls said: “Just in case there aren’t enough reasons why teenage girls don’t use parks, this ‘art’ piece has been installed on some park gates in Glasgow.
"I actually don’t have the words for how angry this makes me.”
Icelandic and Irish artist Rakel McMahon created the work as part of a Govan art project organised by Ltd Ink Corporations.
Defending her creation on Instagram, Ms McMahon said she was “aware of the horrible attack in that park” and was aware it might be misconstrued as “sexist.”
She said: “I feel the work touches upon the discourse on victim blaming in sexual harassment as well as giving the park area a feminine vibe that these green areas need.”
But dozens of people have hit out at the image with it described as “offensive, “tasteless” and “obscene.”
Average Woman said: “This is so horrible. It needs removing immediately.”
Glasgow City Council said it is looking into the issue.
Fiona Clark said on Twitter : “Surely someone in the parks department or planning committee (at the council) could see this was not an appropriate installation?”
Entitled the Gate of Assumption, the structure is one of a series of creations from artists in the Safari of Sorts exhibition.
It is described as a “series of £100 micro commissions, focused on site specific contemporary artworks.”
Arts Organisation Ltd Ink Corporations has been contacted for comment.
Copy supplied by Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel