N.Y. Times : Art on City Streets Till the Cows Come Home

"We're the largest producer of public art in the world. There are a lot of copycats and a lot of different forms out there, but the cow has the absolute perfect size and dimensions. It's also probably the only animal in the world that is universally known and liked. If you're talking about fish, we don't have any connection with them except that we eat them." Or, in the immortal words of the Kurt, It's okay to eat fish / Because they don't have any feelings. It is interesting that no mention was made of a similar project in Toronto, a couple of years ago, involving moose. This is probably because there is hardly a single statue anywhere in the city whose antlers haven't been removed. It reminds me of the story of Alcibiades who is said to have, on the night before the Athenians were to set off for battle, roamed the streets of the city knocking all the penises off the statues of Hermes that graced many a front lawn. Speaking of Kurt, I went to visit the Museum School in Boston -- that's a rhinocerous outside not a cow or defaced moose -- shortly after [his] suicide. I was sitting in the lobby area having some lunch when I noticed the hand-painted paper banners hanging from the exposed staircases. They were almost poetic in their simplicity. Kurt, they called out. Kurt. I haven't been back since. In the end, though, the most telling thing about the Times article is that the author negledted any mention of Joe Fafard's bronze cows, resting next to the obligatory big-city Mies van der Rohe towers in the heart of Toronto's financial district. I'm going to assume that this was because they did not fit in to the blueberry bagel flavoured world-view of subsequent animal projects. see also Moose Truth - Toronto's Moose Conspiracy

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