Cow Parade

Yes it really is a shame. I saw these cows positioned around central London last July and they were a great hit with locals and tourists alike. Unfortunately this is yet another reflection on the plight of Dublin city public spaces.

Yeh I agree…….

……but I was talking to Whacker and he thought that ‘de bleedin cows wer stupit’ and ‘dat him and de bird toth dat …..dat was’nt bleedin art’…..
So too did Cormac from Ballinteer who thought that ‘de coaws beard no resembelence too de reale kattle back hoome’.
and Justin form Rathmines agreed saying that ‘thows cows thingys were so silly man …Roish!’.

We have a long way to go with our Art Education syllabus in this country!

Its nothing really to do with Art Education. Unfortunately it was completely predictable – I say the cows in Salamanca last October. I thought they were great.

When I heard they were coming to Dublin and going to just be in the streets without protection, I’m afraid that I say this coming a mile off and was joking about how long they’d last – even joking I didn’t think it was going to be as short as a week.

Still though – its a fact of life in Dublin. Its said to say that we shouldn’t try stuff like this out because of all the vandals, but certainly we should do this taking into account the terrible vandalism problem in the city.

……so the total vandalism of the public art piece’s has nothing got to do with the art education of the Irish public.
What is the reason then, the depletion of the rainforests in Brazil, the Middle Eastern conflict, Mad Cow desease, CJD and the price of beef?

Well, lets see – is it the fact that the city centre is populated by some very disadvantaged and dodgy people who live in the slum ghettos which ring that same city centre?

Their disadvantaged background has not socialised them to the extent where littering, vandalism etc. would be seen as bad.

I lack any art education – but I have the common sense to see that vandalism isn’t good – even if I don’t like a particular piece of art. So I’m not going to go out and wreck a parade cow or whatever because of that lack of art just as I’m not going to go out and thorw all my rubbish all over O Connel St. and into the Liffey – because I’ve been socialised to see that as a bad thing and that its not good to live in a dirty beaten-up city (which is, in fact, where I live!).

I have to say that I believe the so called middle class in this country are among the most destructive.

ZAP….How can you say it was only those from a socially disadvantaged background that destroyed the art pieces. It was most likely people from other backgrounds as well.
See Dublin town on any night particularly the weekend when the so called educated and employed young masses of Dublin and all Ireland whilst gargled to the brim wreak havoc on the city. It’s these folk too that ye’ll find pissing and puking in doorways. Once they have their 7 honours in their leaving cert, a 3rd level education and a good job the buck stops there regarding art and the urban environment.

I was at an open air opera performance last night…. lots of well educated, cultured people enjoying a summers evening in the park watching opera. Not the type of people who would litter a beautiful park with their rubbish you would imagine, but that was not the case… the place was filthy afterwards.

I think all classes can be responsible for vandalism and litter. Greg hits it on the head with his comments … although a little stereotypically!

And I agree its sad to see that the Cows only lasted a week.

……just to add too , there were pig sculptures installed in Galway and they were just recently vandalized too. One sculptue was smashed to pieces ….The French artist was very distraught.

i too think it’s a shame. i can’t understand why people do this? people who deface property really get up my nose. i wonder has the spike been defaced yet? if not, it will only be a matter of time in my opinion. someone always has to ruin things for everyone else. people will remember that ireland couldn’t keep the cows due to vandalism. it gives us a bad name. to be honest i really don’t care where these type of people come from because no matter what way you look at it, it’s wrong to vandalise. punish the b**ts and teach them a lesson, that’s if you can catch them.

😡

Killing cows today, burning books tomorrow.

I saw one of the exiled cows as it walked down to the ferry. He looked a bit sad to be leaving…

I was really shocked when I heard about the cows.

This city is populated by a disproportiately large amount of scum. Scumbags and people stoned off their heads on every street corner. People shooting up outside tourist attractions, and little toe rags demanding money from passers by. The city can never gain a good reputation as long as it’s crawling with low lifes.

Wish I, or someone !, could clear the streets of these useless low life ‘people’ who have no respect for anything or anyone. They make me sick to my stomach.

Was the open-air opera at Farmleigh Stephen C?

Sorry, I’m just nosey.

The company I work for was going to sponsor a cow but decided against it due to concerns that it would get vandalised…

I wouldn’t say that we have a disproportionate amount of scum, more that we have a vast amount of selfish idiots with no civic pride whatsoever. With whom nothing is ever done. If you made them clean the streets etc rather than just fining them….

Exactly, “the lowest form of work known to man – janitorial work!” to quote Principal Skinner…

Graham you’re an ‘up you’re own arse snob’…..
…what an imature thing to come out with, some people have been dealt a really hard hand in life…..and i’d rather listen to them any day than a selfish prick like you….I’m so angry

I think we need something like this:

!!!JOKE ALERT!!!

Indeed

No offence to anyone intended, I ment it purely in the sardonic context of the Simpsons in which case it was highly amusing.
And I’ve done my fare share of ‘blue collar work’ not to be called a snob, at least I don’t resort to crude name-calling which one could equally describe as immature.

And God knows the people that clean our streets etc are the real people of this country – keeping things running, not Dail Commitees and IAPs – a cleaned street does more for the city than any blueprints and masterplans, and in a fraction of the time. And someone unfortunatly has to do it.
Which is what I originally meant, its a pity more smug middle class offenders arn’t made clean up after themselves in court rulings – snobs like me.

….ok…maybe i was a little off hand….sound like a good guy…i’ll take it back

Thank you.

now i don’t want anyone to think i am condoning the damage to the cows, but isn’t there something lame about the cowparade, it’s corporate, it’s harmless, it’s meaningless and it’s kind of hollow. does this affect the way the cows were treated?

I dont think the people who did the damage were critics – I couldn’t see Brian Sewell kicking the shite out of a fiberglass cow.

he doesn’t have to

I’ve lived in this city for 7 years and I can tell you for sure that 99% of the litter on the streets is discarded by an army of bitter knackers and junkies. Sure, comparatively speaking they’ve been dealt a “hard hand” but compared to the suffereings of most of the world they have it so f**king easy. I don’t know what it is about Dubliners, but they seem to believe they are owed a living, are better than everybody else and they can fuckin throw their sweetie wrappers wherever they fancy. They are the most conformist, ignorant and unpleasant people ever to be shat out by the Lord and why oh why can’t we get them the f**k out of the city under the carpet like most cities.

All you tinker apologists can just shut up; come the revolution you’ll be the first against the wall.

Sure the answer was not to remove the cows but to remove the morons whose only joy in life it is to make other people’s life a misery.

there’s still a few cows on the northside quays; you know by the IFSC and that.
One of them is really lame, just a load of handprints. I guess this would be the “community” effort.

Its true, the campsire cows are undamaged, this sort of contradicts my claim that public art people respect is less likely to be damaged, my evidence, in my own mind, was that people seem to like the famine memorial and it seems to escape vandalism, on the otherhand, as pointed out, the cows in the same area seem to be fine too. In short, my thesis is unsupported by evidence.

I still think cowparade is kind of crappy.

There isn’t any copper-face-jack’s type place down the campshire for people to get shitfaced and kick the crap out of a fiberglass cow though either. I think the cows were herded down there for their own safety.

I think it’s very interesting that the cows that are still on public display are as you’ve mentioned, mostly down the docks. They wern’t moved to there though, whatever’s there was there at the start.

There were comments in the papers that suggested that the “deprived” residents of the innercity had vandalised the public art that they were to ignorant to appreciate.

As it turns out any cow unfortunate enough to be within areas that draw crowds from the suburbs in the evenings is now gone and all that’s left is the cows in the docklands that are surrounded by the inner city locals.

Speaking of which – well done to Sherrif Street After-school project (and Gavin Friday) and the “no cow”. That would be a “community effort” GoodFella!

I don’t know who did the handprint cow, but I heard there was a similarly painted one you could participate in at the Special Olympics in RDS. I think the one at campshires is more subdued colouring though.

There’s one, unscathed, outside Patrick Guilbaud’s.

And several have appeared in recent days grazing the lawn outside the National Gallery.

Its not just in Dublin you know

Taken From MediaGuardian.co.uk diary:

Cow kidnap case solved
The Associated Newspapers cow (which one?) has returned safely to the fold. Mootro, a former star of charitable public art event the international cow parade, went missing from her concrete plinth outside the Edinburgh Fringe Festival box office on the Royal Mile last weekend, and was last spotted being carried down Leith Walk in the wee small hours. Happily, following an appeal in free newspaper Metro, she was found at a special needs school, where it appeared she had been tossed over the wall by her abductors, slightly damaged but otherwise fine. The promised reward of £250 will go to the school. A heart-warming end to the tale.

Trace:
I wouldnt publicise the fact that theres an art piece outside Patrick Guilbauds….Conrad Gallagher might get ideas

There are a few on the south side of the Green, one of which is used as a container for an ice-cream vendor. I wonder what beef ice-cream tastes like?

beef i suppose.

and cream

and kind of icy…!

It would seem then that the Cow Parade has not vanished from our streets but simply been reorganised and rediected away from those yob-prone areas to more gentille surroundings.

There is also one in the Abbey foyer. It should be safe there. I doubt if the ‘yobs’ know of the theatre’s existance.

And the National Gallery herd have it too easy as well, experiencing nothing but upper middle class gentility and adoring American tourists, a short stroll over to the Rutland Fountain – and then safely locked up every evening, personal security staff, sweet green grass to enjoy – upon which not one foot has ever stepped, and the distinguished Dargan to watch over them all.
Ah yes, some just don’t appreciate what they have in life.

In ‘Vandals spell end of Belgian street art’, Expatica News reported yesterday that “a street show of fibre glass cow sculptures in Brussels was partially decimated just hours after the 187 ‘Art on Cows’ exhibits were set up in the city’s parks and squares.” http://www.expatica.com/belgium.asp?pad=88,89,&item_id=33499

I put it down to ‘Mad Human Disease’

It’ interesting to read the impassioned correspondence regarding the vandalism of fiberglass cows, whether from the knee jerk “it’s society’s fault” on the left to the “let’s have a brazilian solution to an irish problem” on the right. In some ways, it’s heartening that people care so much, in other ways it seems to be a manifestation of the national pastime of navel gazing. As an expat, I am always a little stretched when I return to Dublin and have to explain to my small children why someone might smash a bus shelter or leave rubbish on the street. It is truly one of the dirtiest and bedraggled first world capitals I have ever been to, even with the extraordinary architectural and civic progress of the past ten years.

It has always been claimed that the Irish have never had a history of cities or urban areas – and hence simply don’t have a sense of civic pride or an appreciation of what can be achieved with so many people and so much wealth concentrated in such areas – something that I think has more than a grain of truth.
And nowhere is this more evident in Dublin, nearly all of it’s inhabitants seem to belive that we have just ‘inherited’ this Georgian(ish) city, rather than see it as a place that was built by Irish people to be used by mostly Irish people, and has been treated with distain at best and utter contempt at worst as a result.

Not that this has anything to do with louts smashing things up today – they’re not exactly loitering around Merrion Square lobbing rocks through windows screaming ‘bloody Brits!’ ‘you and your pretentious Georgiana!’

They just do it because they couldn’t care about anything.

Dubliners may have got the Merrion Square lobbing of bricks and derogatory observations in the direction of brits out of their system when the british embassy was deconstructed after Bloody Sunday.
I suppose there is a grain of truth in the cliche about not having any purely indiginous urban history, but the same could be said about every other post colonial society that do not seem to treat their cities as poorly as the Irish. Actually, it seems our attitude is more like that of the old enemy than we might like to admit. Many UK cities have the same scruffy air of wilful neglect festooned with the debris of alcohol enhanced rampages by the weekend warrior classes.