Kriston Capps is an American art critic in Washington, DC, and while he did not visit Taiwan to witness the harbor tours of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, he read enough about the public art brouhaha over the now infamous “big yellow duck” as to become a bit incredulous.
Was the inflatable Rubber Duck “public art” or mere tourist marketing which outsourced the creative work to a non-Taiwanese artist overseas when surely there were local artists who would have loved some commissions by city and harbor officials?
Capps, in an article published in September in CityLab, an online urban arts magazine, didn’t waste any time inflating the rubber duck tour. Headlined The ‘rubber duck’ artist must be stopped, he said that the “Rubber Duck sends an infantilizing message about the role of public art in cities.”
Photo: Wang Rong-hsiang, Taipei Times
PUBLIC ART OR ASTUTE MARKETING
As for the infamous rubber duck — “designed” by Hofman to be an oversized version of a popular bath toy first created and patented in 1947 by a Los Angeles sculptor — not everyone in Taiwan considered it to be public art by any means and wondered what the fuss was all about.
For Taiwanese film director Huang Ming-chuan (黃明川), who has made a series of well-received video documentaries about local artists, the yellow duck tour was full of holes.
“Taiwanese politicians believed this European cute duck could attract voters’ attention,” Huang said. “That was the core thinking ... and not about art or public art.”
The arrival of Hofman’s duck sent local media into a frenzy of pointless reporting over how “cute” the huge bath creature was.
Hofman’s Web site says it all, in a kind of New Agey way: “The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn’t discriminate [against] people and doesn’t have a political connotation ... has healing properties ... and is suitable for all ages.”
So were tourism officials in Greater Kaohsiung and Keelung taken in while also cashing in with the duck “events?” And by doing so, were they inadvertently “outsourcing” a public art project to an overseas artist and neglecting local Taiwanese artists who could use the gigs?
Lin Su-chun (林素純), a Taipei resident who is doctoral candidate in philosophy at National Cheng Kung University, said that the rubber duck was “commercialized and hyped by the media, to the point of overkill,” Lin said, adding that she doesn’t see the duck as art, public or otherwise.
“But ... if we are talking about local city tourism or sightseeing in Taiwan, I felt that the rubber duck was a very impressive landmark.”
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