First Lady Melania Trump has been honored with a statue in her hometown of Sevnica, Slovenia, but the statue doesn’t seem to have had the desired effect.
After its unveiling, reactions have come in quickly, and they’ve been blunt in their assessment of the work.
The life-sized statue, carved out of a tree stump, celebrates the small town’s most famous daughter.
Commissioned by American conceptual artist Brad Downey and carved with a chainsaw by local pipe layer and amateur artist Ales Zupevc, the statue depicts Melania waving in the blue dress she wore to her husband’s inauguration.
Zupevc was born in the same year, and at the same hospital, as the first lady.
While Sevnica has seen an upturn in tourism since Trump’s inauguration, locals aren’t too happy with the new statue.
“It doesn’t look anything like Melania,” ITV reported one resident as saying. “It’s a Smurfette. It’s a disgrace.”
Nika, a local architecture student, said that “If the monument was meant to be a parody, then the artist has been successful,” according to The Guardian . “We in Sevnica can only laugh and, at the same time, hold our heads in our hands over their [the Trumps’] catastrophic reputation.”
Online, the reactions were just as incisive, carving up the creation in typical internet fashion.
As in, without mercy and at full throttle. Yeah, this statue got dragged, hard.
There were many examples of similar circumstances to draw upon.
Such as Michael Scott’s wonderfully inappropriate going-away gift for Oscar on The Office .
And then there are the other high profile attempts at art that fell flat.
We all remember how someone “improved” this painting of Jesus, right?
And the famous bust of Cristiano Ronaldo also springs to mind.
You know, the one that was famous for all the wrong reasons? The one that was mocked so much the artist replaced it? Yeah, that one.
Nevertheless, despite the rough treatment, Downey stands by the statue of Melania.
Speaking with The Washington Post , Downey said that “People might laugh at the aesthetics of the monument, but the context plays a very important role. This is not the random positioning of a monument. People may laugh, but the context still resonates.”
He also says the statue’s rough edges, done by an amateur, is part of the point.
“He’s always made art on his own,” Downey said. “He didn’t make art to become a famous artist. I thought it was charming and honest and it wasn’t corrupted by academia.”
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Melania has yet to comment on the statue. And as for Zupevc, he’s proud of the time he put in and hopes she’d be happy with his work. “She might come and see the thing,” he said. “She might like it.”
