Cleveland State Paying Artist to Move Anti-Trump Sculpture off Campus
“includes a beak that opens and closes, rotating wheels, a cedar shovel and a tail”
The anti-Trump market has been good to a lot of people, including sculptors.
Cleveland.com reports:
Cleveland State University will pay $50,000 to sculptor whose work is critical of Trump; artist will move statue off campus
Cleveland State University will pay $50,000 to settle a free-speech lawsuit filed by a multimedia artist whose 42-foot sculpture has sat on the university’s campus for more than a decade, according to the artists’ attorneys.
The artist agreed to move his sculpture off campus as part of the settlement.
Billie Lawless’ lawsuit, filed in January, accused officials of infringing on his First Amendment rights when workers covered up the phrase “BUILD A WALL OF PUSSIE,” which he added to his work “The Politician: A Toy” on Oct. 15. The mechanical sculpture — which includes a beak that opens and closes, rotating wheels, a cedar shovel and a tail — has sat in a grassy area off East 18th Street near Chester Avenue since 2008.
Workers have since removed a banner covering up the phrase following some settlement negotiations. The final settlement was reached Thursday, and the university and Lawless’ attorneys said in a joint statement that both sides agreed Lawless will move the work off campus by July 24.
“Cleveland State University and Billie Lawless thank each other for their 10-year relationship during which CSU displayed The Politician: A Toy on its campus,” the statement reads, per a release from Lawless’ attorneys Andy Geronimo and Peter Pattakos. “The parties have worked together to amicably resolve their recent dispute.”
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Comments
The headline is wrong. If the sculpture has been up since 2008 it can’t possibly be anti-Trump. In 2008 Trump was a liberal Democrat, and the artist would not have been criticizing him. Nor did he then support a wall.
The article you cite does not say the sculpture is anti-Trump, it says the artist’s work is critical of Trump. That obviously refers to his current work, not to what he was doing eleven years ago.
You didn’t read the article.