Free art piece idea #45

The traffic cone as a tarbouche

This one is called “The past is defenseless”. The tarbouche is the traditional male headcover in Lebanon. It’s beautiful.

Two fine men and two tarbouches

Western statues lack a head cover which, by many Eastern standards, is a sad state for a man to be in. This piece suggests covering, during a given evening, every statue’s head in Paris (ideally the world) with a traffic cone. The piece is meant:

• As a loving gift to every male and female our species has decided to honor through a statue. It is reminiscent of how people lovingly cover little buddha heads with red or pink silk hats in South Eastern Asia.
• As a contrast of the eternal and the ephemeral. The traffic cone is an artefact meant as reminders to be careful, often for no longer than a few hours. Statues are meant as reminders of certain values, there to stay for eternity. Cones are made of plastic, statues stone or bronze. This is a voluntary collision of materials and lifelines. I once saw a statue of Bernanos near the Palais Royal with a silk tie around it. Eternal, ephemeral.
• As the perversion of a symbol. Statues are an embodiment of what our past selves wanted our future selves to look up to. By putting a plastic cone on a stone or bronze statue, the artist is redecorating the past. She is bringing back the symbol from the stale realm of the old city to the realm more ironic and sarcastic zeitgeist of our time.

What this piece goes on to show is how defenseless the past is. It demonstrates how dependent on each of us these motionless statues are to preserve what they stand for. The plastic cone can be replaced by any number of ephemeral materials (wood, paper, silk etc.) that would contrast with the perceived eternity of stone.

As importantly, the piece repurposes vandalism. From an insult made by a small group against the larger community’s values, it becomes an opportunity to reflect on the collective responsibility of the larger whole. By stealing vandalism from vandals, the piece reimagines it as a tool and a proactive act meant for anyone to stand for — rather than against — society’s values. Pushed further, the artist could recreate the scene by sculpting the statue in wood and the cone in stone. The act is more important than the symbol.