Finally went and saw the Wollstonecraft statue down the street from me. A few basic impressions: 1/

If the intention of public art is to generate conversation, then this one definitely has done it. Its installation site is a river of mud from people milling around it, and the controversy online has been extensive. 2/

What is interesting for me is that EVERYONE I have spoken to in my neighbourhood loves it. And among those who hate it, there is no single "line". As many socialist, anarchist, radical, young, older etc etc feminist hate it as they love it. 3/

Based on social media posts I have seen, the only group who love it across the board, are sex-positive feminists of Hambling's generation. 4/

When I visited there were notes deriding the naked body under the statue, but the gaffer tape covering the woman's breasts/genitals had been removed. 5/

But I have to say the focus on the naked body is interesting/odd for a couple of reasons: a) the naked body is actually a TEENY portion of the statue (see first image above); 6/

b) some of the people who have protest her nakedness have been very literalist. Isn't representation always incomplete, contested, subjective? 7/

As yet, I haven't made up my mind about whether I like the piece or not. But one thing I do LOVE about it is its non-monumentality. There is actually a lot of feminist critique of monumental public art, so I do like it that the statue is non-monumental. 8/

I think the statue as a whole quotes lots of ideas (Venus rising out of the sea; the emergence of woman (Eve?) from a thought-bubble; cinematic figure rising out of smoke) which can be equally kitschy, tongue-in-cheek, or provocative. I haven't decided yet. /fin

Sorry about all the typos all the way down the thread! Have to run off to work now.

Incidentally, I am sure there are criticisms to be made as to why a fallback to Greek/Roman statuary conventions is the automatic fallback in public art (see Cora Gilroy-Ware's book for an intelligent discussion https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9781913107062/classical-body-romantic-britain), but I haven't seen those criticisms yet.