Police Make Arrest After Graffiti Found on Brian Jungen Sculpture – RisePEI
A person has been arrested in connection with the investigation into anti-Semitic graffiti discovered on artist Brian Jungen’s Sofa Monster sculpture in Toronto final week.
Toronto’s police division stated that, on July 13 at 6:15 a.m., a person was seen spray portray the graffiti on the entrance of the sculpture, an infinite 11,000-pound determine of an elephant constructed from discarded leather-based couches and forged in bronze.
A 53-year-old man, Paul Cote, was arrested two days later and charged with mischief-damage property beneath $5,000. Nonetheless, Toronto’s Hate Crime Unit is concerned within the investigation, based on the Toronto Solar, and the case is being handled as a hate-motivated crime.
The general public sculpture, whose full title is Sofa Monster: Sadzěʔ yaaghęhch’in poor health (my coronary heart is ripping), 2022, was commissioned by Artwork Gallery of Ontario and sits on a avenue nook exterior the museum in downtown Toronto. It was installed in June.
“The usage of discarded couches got here from my experiences of strolling the streets of Toronto and seeing them deserted on the sidewalks ready to be picked up at night time,” Jungen told the AGO. “This was overseas to me and shocking, however to the residents of this metropolis, accustomed to seeing them, they’re invisible. I look ahead to making them seen once more.”
Jungen and AGO director and chief government Stephan Jost each stated when it was unveiled that they anticipated the general public to work together with the sculpture, although it’s doubtless neither anticipated it to be vandalized. On the launch occasion, Jost stated that the earlier sculpture in that location, Henry Moore’s Giant Two Kinds (1966–69) was “almost never tagged,” based on the Artwork Newspaper.
